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{ C. K. OGDEN

LETTERS OF EDWARD LEAR

STUDIES OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
IN ITALY. By VERNON LEE. New Edition, with a New
Preface, a Photogravure Frontispiece, and 40 other Illus-
trations selected by Dr. Guido Biagi, of the Laurentian
Library, Florence. Super Royal 8vo, Half-bound, 21s. net.

BEFORE AND AFTER WATERLOO. By EDWARD
STANLEY, sometime Bishop of Norwich. Edited by J. H.
ADEANE and MAUD GRENFELL. With 5 Photogravures and
5 Coloured Plates, and 27 other Illustrations. Medium 8vo,
cloth, 14s. net.

OLD ENGLISH SPORTS. By F. W. HACKWOOD.
With 6 Coloured Plates, and 32 other full-page Illustrations.
Demy 8vo, cloth, 10s. 6d. net.

LONDON: T. FISHER UNWIN.

LETTERS

EDWARD LEAR

AUTHOR OF "THE BOOK OF NONSENSE"

CHICHESTER FORTESCUE
LORD CARLINGFORD

AND

FRANCES COUNTESS WALDEGRAVE

EDITED BY

LADY STRACHEY

OF
SUTTON COURT

ILLUSTRATED

LONDON : T. FISHER UNWIN

ADELPHI TERRACE

1909

First Edition, November, 1907
Second Edition, December, 1907
Third Edition, September, 1908
Fourth Edition, January, igog

Stack
Annex

IOC

343,

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TO E. L., ON HIS TRAVELS IN GREECE.

ILLYRIAN woodlands, echoing falls
Of water, sheets of summer glass,
The long divine Peneian pass,
The vast Akrokeraunian walls,

Tomohrit, Athos, all things fair,
With such a pencil, such a pen,
You shadow forth to distant men,
I read and felt that I was there :

And trust me while I turn'd the page,
And track'd you still on classic ground,
I grew in gladness till I found
My spirits in the golden age.

For me the torrent ever pour'd
And glisten'd here and there alone
The broad-limb'd gods at random thrown
By fountain-urns ; and Naiads oar'd

A glimmering shoulder under gloom
Of cavern pillars ; on the swell
The silver lily heaved and fell ;
And many a slope was rich in bloom

From him that on the mountain lea
By dancing rivulets fed his flocks,
To him who sat upon the rocks,
And fluted to the morning sea.

TENNYSON.

CONTENTS

PAGE

INTRODUCTION , . xiii

CHAPTER I
ROME, GREECE, AND ENGLAND .

CHAPTER II
CORFU AND ENGLAND . . 32

CHAPTER III
CORFU . . . . . , .6l

CHAPTER IV
PALESTINE, CORFU, AND ENGLAND . ... 94

CHAPTER V
ROME REVISITED . , . . . .121

CHAPTER VI

ROME AND A WINTER IN ENGLAND . . . 157

vii

Letters of Edward Lear

CHAPTER VII

PAGE

ITALY AND SWITZERLAND . . . .185

CHAPTER VIII
CORFU 206

CHAPTER IX
MALTA AND ENGLAND ...... 243

CHAPTER X
CORFU ...... 256

CHAPTER XI
ENGLAND ..... 281

CHAPTER XII
LAST VISIT TO CORFU . . .297

APPENDIX-
PICTURES PAINTED, 1840-1877 . , . 311
INCOMPLETE LIST OF THE. WORKS ILLUSTRATED BY LEAR 319

via

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

LIST OF PLATES

EDWARD LEAR AND CHICHESTER FORTESCUE (Photogravure)

Frontispiece

From a Daguerreotype taken at Red House, Ardee, September, 7857.

PENTEDATILO . . . . . Facing page i

From Lear's "Journal of a Landscape Painter in Calabria"
(R. Bentley, 1852).

THE MOUNTAINS OF THERMOPYLAE (Coloured Re-
production) ...... 12

From a painting by Edward Lear in the possession of Lady
Slrachey.

SULI (Coloured Reproduction) ... u 20

From Lear's "Journal of a Landscape Painter in Albania"
(R. Bentley, 1851).

GlOIOSA ...... ,,28

From Lear's "Journal of a Landscape Paintet in Calabria"
(R. Bentley, 1852).

FRANCES COUNTESS WALDEGRAVE, /ET. 29 . 36

From a coloured lithograph of a crayon drawing by J. K. Swinton.

TEMPE (Coloured Reproduction) ... ,,40

From Lear's " Journal o a Landscape Painter in Albania "
(R. Bentley, 1851).

SAN VlTTORINO . . . . $0

E. Lear del. et Mh.

MRS. RUXTON ... n 54

From a photograph of a picture.

Letters of Edward Lear

EDWARD LEAR . . . . Facing page 72

From a photograph taken about 1853 or 1854.

TAGGIA . . , ... . 114

" Ice far up on a mountain head."

From "Poems by Alfred Lord Tennyson, illustrated by Edward
Lear" (Boussod, Valedon & Co., 1889). By kind permission of
Lord Tennyson.

NlNFA .... . . ,,122

Woodcut from "Illustrated Excursions in Italy," by Edward
Lear (Thomas McLean, 1846).

LADY WALDEGRAVE ... . ,,132

From a photograph taken in 1859. One among a number taken
in contemplation of a statuette executed later by Noble. This one
a special pose from one of tlte plays acted at Nuneham.

CASTEL FUSANO . . . . . ,162

From "Illustrated Excursions in Italy," by Edward Lear
(Thomas McLean, 1846)

THE CAT AND THE HEN .... ,,182

A sketch by Lear.

THE ROSE-COLOURED SHIRT ... 199

MAR SABBAS, SYRIA ..... 230

" Girt round with blackness." The Palace of Art.

From "Poems by Alfred Lord Tennyson, illustrated by Edward
Lear" (Boussod, Valedon & Co., 1889). By kind permission of
Lord Tennyson.

Gozo, MALTA (?)..... 243

From an unnamed photograph of a picture by Edward Lear.

CHICHESTER FORTESCUE .... 290

From a photograph taken June, 1863.

FRANCES COUNTESS WALDEGRAVE ... 290

From a photograph taken June, 1863.

PHILIATES, ALBANIA ..... 300

From a pen and ink sketch in a Utter.

List of Illustrations

LIST OF THE MORE IMPORTANT SKETCHES
REPRODUCED IN THE TEXT

PAGE

LETTER WITH SKETCHES OF THE ACADEMY SCHOOLS . 23-25

A LESSON IN PISTOL-SHOOTING . . . . .92

PALESTINE SKETCHES ..... 98-101, 107, 108

ASSYGRAMS . . . . .141

THE BOWL OF PEACE , , , .. . . .143

THE RESULT OF WANT OF EXERCISE . . . 170

LEAR PAINTING AT NUNEHAM . _. . , 4 .173

"THERE WAS A YOUNG PERSON OF CHERTSEY" . . .179
"THERE WAS A YOUNG LADY OF CLARE" . ' i . 220

LEAR'S NEW GALLERY ...... 229

LEAR'S HAIR VIOLENTLY GROWING . . . .246

DEATH IN THE DESERT . . . . . . 254

"THERE WAS A YOUNG GIRL OF MAJORCA" . . . 264
A CORFU DINNER-PARTY . , , , . 269

LEAR'S PICTURE GALLERY AT CORFU . .274
"A MOTH HAS CROSSED MY PAPER" . , .283
LEAR AND THE MICE . . 288

LEAR LEAVES A CARD . 294

"THERE WAS AN OLD MAN WHO SAID, ' HOW'" . .29$

To Lord Tennyson my special thanks are due for his kind
permission in allowing to be included in this book photographs
of two of the pictures from "Poems by Alfred Lord Tennyson
illustrated by Edward Lear." This work was brought out in
i88g, after Lear's death, by Boussod, Valedon &* Co. The edition
was limited to a hundred copies, and each copy was signed by
the poet. For the sake of his old friend and to partly fulfil one
of the most cherished objects of Lear's later life, which, alas ! he
never was able himself to carry out, this book was published,
containing twenty-two out of the many pictures drawn and
specially put aside for this purpose by Lear. J am also
fortunate in being able to include such a poem as " To E. Z,.,
on his Travels in Greece? written by the poet after Lear's
earlier visit to that country. Most readers know the poem, but
many do not know to whom it was addressed. To these will
come the surprise and to all the pleasure, of finding these verses
used as it were in a dedicatory sense, both to the words of the
man they praise and to the account he gives of a journey over
the same ground they commemorate.

C. &

INTRODUCTION

"True humour is sensibility in the most catholic and
deepest sense ; but it is the sport of sensibility ; wholesome
and perfect therefore ; as it were, the playful, teasing fond-
ness of a mother to her child." CARLYLE.

IT is said that humour is allied to sadness,
and that it is this quality which defines
it from its kindred talent, wit. The writer
of the following letters was a master of the
former art, as well as a painter of beautiful
and original pictures.

The English and American public of the
present day, only know Edward Lear through
his " Books of Nonsense." To only a cultivated
few and the survivors of a past generation
who possess many of his works, are his
pictures existent. But practically to none is
known the depth of character and person-
ality of the man who wrote these rhymes
and painted these pictures. How few have
realised the vein of sadness and other

xiii

Letters of Edward Lear

qualities, which went to make Lear's humour
of the highest order and his pictures of
special interest. Therefore it has seemed
to me that these letters to one of his
most intimate and life-long friends, would be
acceptable to the many whose childhood was
associated and made glad by his inimitable
fun and frolic, and that these should be
given some idea of his real life-work his
paintings, to which he dedicated every energy
of his being. Besides, the total want of
knowledge by them of the man himself, has
led I believe to a growing and rising
interest in his doings and sayings, his aims
and ambitions, as distinct from the mere
writer of the immortal nonsense verses.
Those who in their childhood loved him
for the joyousness he gave them, now in
their more mature days would be interested
to know what kind of man was the writer
of "The Yonghy-Bonghy-B6," "The Owl
and the Pussy Cat," and the verses and
rhymes he brought to such perfection.
These letters to my uncle and aunt, Lord
Carlingford and his wife Frances Countess
Waldegrave, show the man in every possible
vein of humour, both grave and gay, and
also show forth a most lovable personality.

xiv

Introduction

I, who knew him from my earliest years,
remember how he attracted me at all periods
of my life. From the time when he drew for
me an alphabet when I scarce can remember
his so doing, when he sang with little voice
but with intense feeling and individuality, songs
by Tennyson his friend, which he had himself
put to charming music ; to the time when he
sent me an exquisite framed water-colour
drawing a delicious harmony in blue of
the " Vale of Tempe " as a wedding gift.
And later still when we spent a few weeks
near him in his San Remo villa home in
1880, though much aged and broken by
worries and health, still the same sad whim-
sical personality and undefinable charm of the
man attracted as ever, and one day to us was
literally shown forth, in his singing of an
air to which he had set the " Owl and the
Pussy Cat." But of this rendering, alas !
there is no record, as not knowing music
though a musician by ear, he had been
unable to transcribe it to paper, and grudged
the ^5 he said it would cost to employ
another to do so. And again the last time
I saw him, as we passed the San Remo rail-
way station on our way north from Genoa
to England. It was a Sunday, and he

Letters of Edward Lear

happened to be walking dreamily away from
the station as our train slowed into it, but
out of earshot of our calls. The sad, bent,
loosely-clad figure with hands clasped behind
him, we did not know was walking away
from us then and for ever, for we never saw
him again.

The following letters date only from 1847,
therefore a few pages of what is known of
Lear's history and kindred before this period,
will not come amiss in this introduction.
There is a singular dearth of information
on these points, considering the size of the
family to , which Lear belonged. Of its
representatives now I have only heard of one
member in England, and that one was, I
believe, a colonial born, and a sister's
great-grandson.

Edward Lear, the youngest of twenty-one
children, belonged to a Danish family natural-
ized a generation or so back in England, and
was born at Highgate on May 12, 1812.

His family had some connection, I believe,
with Liverpool, and this fact seems to be
borne out by Mr. Holman Hunt having, in
consequence, presented a portrait drawing of
Lear by himself to that city some few years
ago. Lear's mother must have died very

XVI

Introduction

early in his life, for he always spoke and
in his letters writes, of his eldest sister Ann
as having brought him up and of being as a
mother to him. She must have been a woman
of a good deal of force of character ; for
when domestic adversity and money difficulties
came upon the family, it was through her
small income and by her care, that Lear was
educated and brought up.

He, at the age of fifteen, began to earn a
living by painting. As a dreamy child, as he
must have been, he pored over books of natural
history and dabbled with paints. Thus he was
led to "drawing small coloured pictures of
birds, and of colouring prints and screens and
fans for general use." As time went on he
advanced in his art, and his remuneration and
improvement increased in due proportion.
This again led to his being employed at
nineteen, through the good offices of a Mrs.
Wentworth, at the Zoological Gardens as a
draughtsman. The following year, 1832, he
published his " Family of the Psittacidae,"
a most interesting work, "one of the earliest
collections of coloured ornithological drawings
on a large scale made in England," "as far
as I know," as he himself adds, with his
usual devotion to accuracy and truth.

xvii A *

Letters of Edward Lear

These carefully and exquisitely drawn
pictures of parrots with their brilliant colour-
ings, naturally arrested the attention of such
men as Professors Bell and Swainston, Sir
William Jardine, Mr. Gould and Mr. Gray
of the British Museum, who recognised the
merit of his work and his fidelity to detail.
He further illustrated G. A. Gould's book
on " Indian Pheasants " about this time, and
did other work for the same author and
others of those just mentioned. At this
period came the great opportunity of his life,
and to a small circumstance was he indebted
for the lifelong friendship and help, of the
first and greatest of the many important
patrons for whom he worked during his life.
At this time Lord Derby, who had brought
together an interesting collection of rare
animals and birds at Knowsley, was con-
templating the illustrating and printing of a
magnificent work, which he eventually privately
printed in 1856, and which has now become
the rare and valuable volume known as the
" Knowsley Menagerie." He, one day, I
believe, went to the Zoological Gardens,
where he was so much struck by the work
of a young man whom he observed drawing

there, that he immediately made inquiries

xviii

Introduction

about him, and engaged him on the spot to
execute the bird portion of the illustrations
for his book. This was Lear. From this
happy moment, for four years Lear con-
tinued not only to do work for his patron,
but, as he observes in a small memorandum
to Fortescue, in a letter many years later
than those published in the present volume,
during those years and many after, he met
and mixed with half the fine people of
the day.

Here I transcribe the fragment intact :

C.s. writing of Lord Carlisle's journal reminds me
of a curious discovery I have made lately in looking
over old things of my dear sister Ann's. I remember
telling C F. that for 12 or 13 years when at
Knowsley, I kept a journal about everything and
everybody, but one day in 1840, I burnt the whole.
It has all turned up again, for I copied out all, or
nearly all, in letters to my sister, and she preserved all
those, and here they are !

During those years I saw half the fine people of
the day, and my notes about some are queer enough.
One for instance about Lord W. "The Earl of W. 1
has been here for some days : he is Lord W.'s 2 d
son, and married Lady Mary S. He is extremely

* The second Earl of Wilton, second son of the first Marquess
of Westminster

xix

Letters of Edward Lear

picturesque if not handsome, and dresses in crimson
and a black velvet waistcoat when he looks like a

portrait of Vandyke. Miss says and so does Mrs.

that he is a very bad man, tho he looks so nicely.

But what I like about him, is that he always asks me
to drink a glass of champagne with him at dinner.
I wonder why he does. But I don't much care as I
like the champagne." And some days later I wrote,
" I have asked why on Earth she thinks the Earl of
W. always asks me to drink champagne, and she
began to laugh, and said, because he knows you are a
clever artist and he sees you always look at him and
admire him : and he is a very vain man and this
pleases him, and so he asks you to take wine as a

reward." Ha! Ha! Ha!

Note in 1871.
Still in our ashes
etc. etc.

In 1846 Lear gave drawing lessons to the
late Queen Victoria. Two stories he himself
told of that time will be of interest. Lear
had a habit of standing on the hearthrug.
When at Windsor he was in the room with
the Queen, and as was his wont, he had
somehow managed to migrate to his favourite
place. He observed that whenever he took up
this position, the Lord-in- Waiting or Private
Secretary who was in attendance kept luring
him away, either under pretext of looking at a

Introduction

picture or some object of interest. After each
interlude he made again for the hearthrug,
and the same thing was repeated. It was
only afterwards that he discovered that to
stand where he had done was not etiquette.

On another occasion the Queen, with great
kindness, was showing him some of the price-
less treasures in cabinets either at Windsor
Castle or Buckingham Palace I do not know
which, and explaining their history to him.
Mr. Lear, entirely carried away by the wonder-
ful beauty and interest of what he saw, became
totally oblivious of all other facts, and in the
excitement and forgetfulness of the moment
exclaimed, " Oh ! how did you get all these
beautiful things?" Her Majesty's answer,
as Mr. Lear said, was an excellent one, so
kind, yet so terse and full of the dignity
of a Queen : " I inherited them, Mr. Lear."

In a delightful article by Mr. Wilfrid
Ward several years ago in the New Review
called "Talks with Tennyson," I have ven-
tured to recall a story given apropos of
Edward Lear :

" On one occasion Tennyson's friend, Edward
Lear, was staying in a Sicillian town, painting. He
left the town for some weeks and locked up his

xxi

Letters of Edward Lear

pictures and other things in a room, leaving the key
with the hotel keeper. A revolution had just broken
out when he returned, and he found the waiters full of
Chianti and of patriotic fervour. He ventured to ask
one of them for the chiave of his camera that he
might find his roba. The waiter refused entirely
to be led down from his dreams of a golden age and
of the reign of freedom to such details of daily life.
"O che chiave /" he exclaimed. " O che roba! O che
camera I Non ce piu chiave I Non ce piu roba !
Non ce piu camera / Non c'e piu niente. Tutto Z
amore e liberta. O che bella rivoluzione ! " J Constant
little local revolutions took place at this time in Italy,
and the inhabitants drank an extremely large quantity
of Chianti and talked enthusiastically of liberta and la
fiatria for a couple of days ; and then things settled
down into their former groove."

The acquaintanceship of Lear and Fortescue
began in 1845, when Lear was thirty-three and
Fortescue twenty-two. After leaving Oxford,
the latter took an extended tour in Europe
and Greece, before starting on a parliamentary
career. Fortescue, with his friend Simeon, left
England on February i, 1845, for Italy, where
they remained over six months. In the middle

1 " Oh ! what key ? Oh ! what property ? Oh ! what room ?
There is no more a key ! There is no more property ! There
is no more a room ! There is no more anything 1 All is love
and liberty. Oh what a beautiful revolution 1 "

xxii

Introduction

of March they reached Rome, where they
stayed for over eleven weeks. In Fortescue's
diary, very fully kept during this journey, we
find the entries of his first meeting Lear, and
of how rapidly the friendship which lasted
till Lear's death, ripened between the two.
A few extracts from my uncle's diary may
be interesting to those reading the following
letters :

Thurs., April 15, 1845. Went with Conybeare
to Lear's, where we stayed some time looking over
drawings. I like what I have seen of him very
much.

Sat. 26tk. Saw Lear.

Sun. 27th. After church took a walk with Lear
until nearly dinner-time.

Tkurs., May ist. Simeon went with Scotts and
General Ramsay to Tivoli. ... I declined. Walked
with Lear to the Ponte Salaro sketching. ... I like
very much what I have seen of Lear ; he is a good,
clever, agreeable man very friendly and getonable
with. . . . Spent the evening in Lear's rooms looking
over drawings, &c.

Friday, May 2nd. Simeon and I started for Veii
in a fiacre and overtook Lear. We drove on to near
Isola Farnese, and then got out and sketched. . . .
Then walked down the valley to the S. of Isola to the
Arco di Pino. . . . The day which had been lovely
had gradually clouded over, and we had not left the

xxiii

Letters of Edward Lear

Arco di Pino many minutes, before we were caught
in a thunderstorm which lasted an hour or more.
Lear and I ran to the Osteria at I sola. Simeon
stayed behind under a rock. After eating our dinner
and waiting some time we grew uneasy about
Simeon, and set out in the rain to look for him. We
found the little " Fosso" which we had stepped across
an hour before so swollen, that we did not like to
cross it, and Simeon, who had been delayed by the
same cause, had to wade. . . .

Sun. Went to Lear's in the evening. . . .

Thursday. Started at 5 o'clock with Lear, Simeon,
and a Mr. Chester to Tivoli per carriage. After
breakfast started thence for Palestrina on foot,
Simeon riding.

Explaining the places and views they passed,
including " a villa built by some ' lotus eating '
Cardinal who loved retirement, and dying
under a hill on whose top stood a temple of
the B5na Dea," they halted for Lear to see
some fine aqueducts, which he admired.

Lear wanted to sketch them, and very grand they
are most striking in themselves and in the solitude
of the glens which they cross. . . .

Still drawing and walking, they came to
and were " entertained at his house, by a

xxiv

Introduction

friend of Lear's at Gallicano," and returned
to Rome after a two days' expedition, too late
to see the " Vatican by torchlight with ' Two-
penny's' party."
Fortescue adds :

These were two very enjoyable days. Lear a
delightful companion, full of nonsense, puns, riddles,
everything in the shape of fun, and brimming with
intense appreciation of nature as well as history. I
don't know when I have met any one to whom I took
so great a liking.

Sat. Lear, Simeon, and myself drove to Veii.
Sketched walked . . . then Lear and I walked
home some twelve miles. This was a delightful
day.

Sunday. Called with Lear to ask Bentinck to join
our party to Soracte to-morrow. Lear found he could
not go to-morrow, so that project was knocked on the
head. I was disappointed and strolled alone ... in
rather a disgusted and gloomy state of mind. . . .
Went to Lear's in the evening.

Tkurs. Lear dined with us and gave us a drawing
lesson.

Friday. Felt done, relaxed in abeyance, as Lear
says. . . . Dined with Lear. ... I shall be very
sorry to part with Lear.

Sunday. Lear breakfasted with us. ... Lear
came to say goodbye just before our dinner he
has gone by diligence to Civita Vecchia. I have

XXV

Letters of Edward Lear

enjoyed his society immensely, and am very sorry
he is gone. We seemed to suit each other capitally,
and became friends in no time. Among other
qualifications, he is one of those men of real feeling
it is so delightful to meet in this cold-hearted world.
Simeon and myself both miss him much."

In 1844-45 he seems to have been much
in England, and that probably is the reason
why, no letters appear to exist during those
years from him to Fortescue. With a friend-
ship such as theirs had become they probably
saw one another often, but still if Fortescue
went to Greece in 1846-47, there must have
been some communication between them,
which has, unfortunately, doubtless been lost.

By the courtesy of Messrs. Warne & Co.
permission has been given, for the inclusion
in this introduction of a most interesting and
condensed letter by Lear, of facts of his own
life up to 1862, printed "by way of preface"
to one of their admirable series of his
" Nonsense Books." Through the numerous
editions which have been published by them,
many of the present generation have had the
felicity of enjoying as their parents did before
them these books, by the man of whom Ruskin
said in his list of the best hundred authors, " I

xxvi

Introduction

really don't know of any author to whom I am
half so grateful for my idle self as Edward
Lear. I shall put him first of my hundred
authors."

To all those who are not acquainted with
this series, and to the mothers of the young
children of to-day, I recommend these books
for the cultivation in their children of blameless
humour. Thus ever, a larger number of people
may come to know the lovable man and fine
artist, whose character is revealed in these
letters.

MY DEAR F. I want to send you, before leaving
England, a note or two as to the various publications
I have uttered, bad and good, and of all sorts, also
their dates, that so you might be able to screw them
into a beautiful memoir of me in case I leave my
bones at Palmyra or elsewhere. Leastwise, if a man
does anything all through life with a deal of bother,
and likewise of some benefit to others, the details of
such bother and benefit may as well be known
accurately as the contrary.

Born in 1812 (i2th May), I began to draw, for
bread and cheese, about 1827, but only did uncommon
queer shop-sketches selling them for prices varying
from ninepence to four shillings : colouring prints,
screens, fans ; awhile making morbid disease drawings,
for hospitals and certain doctors of physic. In

xxvii

Letters of Edward Lear

1831, through Mrs. Wentworth, I became employed
at the Zoological Society, and, in 1832, published
"The Family of the Psittacidse," the first complete
volume of coloured drawings of birds on so large a
scale published in England, as far as I know unless
Audubon's were previously engraved. J. Gould's
"Indian Pheasants" were commenced at the same
time, and after a little while he employed me to draw
many of his birds of Europe, while I assisted Mrs.
Gould in all her drawings of foregrounds, as may be
seen in a moment by any one who will glance at my
drawings in G.'s European birds and the Toucans.
From 1832 to 1836, when my health failed a good
deal, I drew much at the Earl of Derby's ; and a
series of my drawings was published by Dr. Gray
of the British Museum a book now rare. I also
lithographed many various detached subjects, and
a large series of Testudinata for Mr. (now Professor)
Bell ; and I made drawings for Bell's " British
Mammalia," and for two or more volumes of the
"Naturalist's Library" for the editor, Sir W. Jardine,
those volumes being the Parrots, and, I think, the
Monkeys, and some Cats. In 1835 or '36, being in
Ireland and the Lakes, I leaned more and more to
landscape, and when in 1837 it was found that my
health was more affected by the climate month by
month, I went abroad, wintering in Rome till 1841,
when I came to England and published a volume of
lithographs called " Rome and its Environs." Re-
turning to Rome, I visited Sicily and much of the

xxviii

Introduction

South of Italy, and continued to make chalk drawings,
though in 1840 I had painted my two first oil-paintings.
I also gave lessons in drawing at Rome and was able
to make a very comfortable living. In 1845 I came
again to England, and in 1846 gave Queen Victoria
some lessons, through Her Majesty's having seen a
work I published in that year on the Abruzzi, and
another on the Roman States. In 1847 I went
through all Southern Calabria, and again went round
Sicily, and in 1848 left Rome entirely. I travelled
then to Malta, Greece, Constantinople, and the
Ionian Islands ; and to Mount Sinai and Greece
a second time in 1849, returning to England in that
year. All 1850 I gave up to improving myself in
figure drawing, and I continued to paint oil-paintings
till 1853, having published in the meantime, in 1849
and 1852, two volumes entitled "Journals of a Land-
scape Painter," in Albania and Calabria. The first
edition of the "Book of Nonsense" was published
in 1846, lithographed by tracing-paper. In 1854
I went to Egypt and Switzerland, and in 1855 to
Corfu, where I remained the winters of 1856-57-58,
visiting Athos, and, later, Jerusalem and Syria. In
the autumn of 1858 I returned to England, and '59
and '60 winters were passed in Rome. 1861, I
remained all the winter in England, and painted the
Cedars of Lebanon and Masada, going, after my
sister's death in March, 1861, to Italy. The two
following winters '62 and '63 were passed at Corfu,
and in the end of the latter year I published "Views in

xxix

Letters of Edward Lear

the Ionian Islands." In 1862 a second edition of the
" Book of Nonsense," much enlarged, was published,
and is now in its sixteenth thousand.
O bother !

Yours affectionately

EDWARD LEAR.

The following letters from 1847 to J 864 tell
their own story during those years, and
therefore nothing further with regard to them
is required in this introduction. But Lear's
life continued and his letters to my uncle
also, till his death at San Remo in 1888, at
the age of seventy-six. Consequently a slight
sketch is required here to make his life
intelligible from the time the letters in 1864
cease, though it is hoped that at some fifture
date should this series be found of interest
to the public, a further instalment up to his
death of equal value may be forthcoming.

From 1864 to 1870 Lear spent his winters
in Nice, Malta, Egypt, and latterly at Cannes.
His summers were busy in having exhibitions
at 15, Stratford Place, and from thence visiting
old friends in different parts of England. His
output of a year's work ending April, 1865,
was enormous, and is a sample of his stupen-
dous industry and his marvellous capabilities of
work, in the face of bad health and difficulties.

XXX

Introduction

During the time mentioned he visited Crete,
the Corniche and the Riviera Coast. To
quote from a letter of his to Fortescue of the
1 8th of the above month, he writes: "You
ought some day to see the whole of my outdoor
work of twelve months 200 sketches in Crete,
145 in the Corniche, and 125 at Nice, Antibes,
and Cannes." But at last in April, 1870,
finding the lease of his Cannes rooms expiring
and unable to be renewed and many things
unsatisfactory and uncertain, he evolved the
idea of buying a piece of land and building
for himself a villa and studio. Land being
very expensive at Cannes and a suitable plot
besides not being available, he decided on
settling down and establishing himself at San
Remo instead.

He therefore finally removed from Cannes
in the following June, and July finds him in
lodgings at San Remo for a few months, till
his new villa which he was building " shall be
ready for my occupation." The studio was in
such an advanced state if not quite finished,
that he was able to use it and paint in it.

At this time, too, he had been unfortunate
in selling his pictures, and he complains that
he "only got 30 from the rich Cannes public
this last winter." His pessimism, which grew

xxxi

Letters of Edward Lear

upon him more and more as time passed on,
is more noticeable at this period when he
writes, " that after he settles down in San
Remo, his visits to England and his friends
will be less and less," and wonders if he " will
get any sales for his pictures."

Besides, another very serious cause, which
the following extract from a letter of July 31,
1870, will explain, suddenly came upon him at
this time as a shock and added to this state
of mind :

I must tell you that I have been, at one time,
extremely ill this summer. It is as well that you
should know that I am told I have the same com-
plaint of the heart as my father died of quite suddenly.
I have had advice about it, and they say I may live
any time if I dorit run suddenly or go quickly upstairs;
but that if I do I am pretty sure to drop morto. I ran
up a little rocky bit near the Tenda, and thought I
shouldn't run any more, and the palpitations were so
bad that I had to tell Georgio all about it, as I did
not think I should have lived that day through.

But when he gets into the "Villa Emily"
(so named, as he says in a letter, after his New
Zealand sister's granddaughter), his spirits
seem to rise again. But through all, his
letters retain their humour sometimes gay,
sometimes sad and their whimsicality and

xxxii

Introduction

attractiveness never fail. Besides, there is added,
a certain charm of the older experienced man
with a riper knowledge of persons and things.

At his new house he remained more or less
permanently, till he went to India in 1874, by
invitation of Lord Northbrook then Governor-
General, there making many sketches for future
use ; and from his return early in 1875 to
1 88 1 with occasional holidays, the Villa Emily
was his home. For some years it had been a
very happy home, where he painted his beautiful
pictures and entertained passing friends.

Although most anxious to sell his pictures,
he may sometimes, by his strange ways, have
turned from his door intending purchasers.
He was by way of showing his studio on one
afternoon in the week. On this day he some-
times sent his servant out and opened the
door himself. This procedure was resorted
to in order that he might keep out Germans,
whose presence, for some unknown reason
filled him with dread. If he did not like
the appearance of a visitor, with a long face
and woe in his voice he would explain that
he never showed his pictures now, being much
too ill. He would then shut the door, and
his cheerfulness would return.

But gradually a grievance grew up, which

xxxiii A **

Letters of Edward Lear

by degrees assumed proportions which so
preyed upon his mind that he decided to
abandon his beloved Villa Emily, and build
another perfectly similar house on a site,
where, he sadly and fancifully observed to his
friends, he was safe, " unless the fishes build."
This " nightmare " was the building of a huge
hotel close to his villa, the reflection from the
roof of which he declared, ruined the light of
his studio, maddening him and rendering his
life hideous.

It was a great trial to him this abandoning
of his cherished home, the garden of which
time had made a paradise. His new abode
the Villa Tennyson as he called it, after one
of his best friends though similar in every
respect, had none of the mellowed charm
which age had given the older house; and the
garden, though he transplanted many shrubs
and moved various arbours and pergolas from
the Villa Emily, was balder and newer and had
not the capabilities of the older one.

His faithful Suliot servant Georgio who
had remained with him ever since his Corfu
days, now having a young son to help him
and train in his duties, was the mainstay
of Lear's life. The artist took a short
holiday to Bologna and the North of Italy

xxxiv

Introduction

while the change of houses was being accom-
plished, the faithful servant cheerfully coped
with all the difficulties of the more practical
side which moving to a new house entailed.
And from this time till Lear's death on Jan.
29, 1888, his home was the Villa Tennyson,
with occasional holidays during the early
summer months to the North of Italy and
later yearly to Monte Generoso, but after the
year 1880 he never again came to England.
He lies buried at San Remo, beside the
eldest son of his faithful Suliot servant
Georgio Kokali, and the stone raised above
his grave records the following touching

memorial :

In memory of

EDWARD LEAR, LANDSCAPE PAINTER
in many lands

Born at Highgate May 12. 1812
Died at San Remo Jan 29. 1888
Dear for his many gifts to many souls.

"all things fair"
" With such a pencil such a pen ''
" You shadow'd forth to distant men "
"I read & felt that I was there."

CONSTANCE STRACHEY.

SUTTON COURT, SOMERSET,
Oct. 4, 1907.

XXXV

APPRECIATION OF LEAR AS A PAINTER

r I "HE following note by my brother-in-law,
-* Mr. Henry Strachey, is an artist's
endeavour to estimate Lear's position as a
painter. C. S.

The landscape painting of Edward Lear has
never been popular either with artists or the
larger public. The reason of this being so
with the latter probably depended both on
fashion and the fact that Lear chose to paint
foreign countries rather than England. That
fellow-painters should have been slow to
appreciate Lear's work depended on other
reasons. What these were it may be of
interest to try to discover. I remember when
I was a student at the Slade School, under
Legros, I paid a visit to Lear at San Remo,
and in talking of art he quoted to me, with
complete approval, these words of some friend
of his, " Copy the works of the Almighty
first and those of Turner next." Now the

xxxvi

Appreciation as a Painter

great and fundamental quality that lies at
the root of the art of Turner is appreciation
of atmospheric effect. His preoccupation was
not so much what the objects painted were
like in themselves, but how they looked when
modified by the ever-changing atmosphere.
It was the light that fell upon the mountain
rather than the shapes of its rocks and slopes
that Turner represented. He painted the
scene for the sake of the light that fell on
it, and not the light as an incident in the
landscape. The lines on which landscape
painters progressed during the latter half of
the last century were on those of light and
atmosphere both here and in the great schools
of France. But Lear never seems to have had
complete sympathy with any aspect of nature
except one which showed him the greatest
number of topographical details. If he painted
the Roman Campagna every sinew in the
plain was lovingly recorded, as was every
arch of the aqueducts, and even the lumps
of the fallen masonry in the foreground.
One is sometimes tempted to think that when
Lear painted an olive-tree near at hand against
the sky he counted the leaves. A traveller
could almost plan his route over a pass from

one of this artist's faithful realisations of

xxxvii

Letters of Edward Lear

mountains. To help him portray nature
minutely the " topographical artist " and I
remember hearing Lear call himself by this
title wishes for quiet, equal light and weather.
For his purpose the shadows of storm clouds
are things which blurr and obscure, though
for the emotional painter they may turn a
commonplace scene into a picture. Lear's
interest in landscape was dual : he was both
a painter and a traveller. This appears in
the letters forming this volume ; indeed, it
often seems as if the historic and geographical
interest predominated. In saying this it must
be remembered that it is much easier to
express in words these constituents of a
scene than it is a purely aesthetic impression.
If it must be admitted that a large part of
Lear's outlook on nature was not purely
pictorial, to him must be conceded a very
real and true sense of beauty. It is because
he could feel the beauty of nature and record
it with individuality that his work is valuable,
and not because it represents exactly some
given piece of country. The labyrinthine
valleys of the blue mountains above Ther-
mopylae, as seen in the picture reproduced
in this book, weave patterns of beauty which
are independent of historic association. In-

xxxviii

Appreciation as a Painter

stances might be multiplied where the artist
has got the upper hand of the topographer,
and the result has been a picture. Lear
painted both in water colour and in oil. It
was, however, in the former medium that he
was most successful. The delicate drawing
and the tendency to use fine lines made the
more fluid water colour answer to his hand
better than the oil paint. Indeed, he seems
never quite happy when working with the
latter, and he is always trying to make it
behave like the more limpid medium.

Only on the rarest occasions did Lear use
the sky except as background. I cannot recall
a picture of his in which the motive was essen-
tially a cloud effect. This was partly due, no
doubt, to the southern climates in which he
painted, with their predominance of blue sky.
Also I think the painter's love of the realisa-
tion of minute detail made him feel that
things which stayed still to be drawn were
those which best suited his style.

The love of detailed representation naturally
made Lear range himself with the Preraphaelite
painters. He, indeed, considered himself one
of the brotherhood in the second generation.
This is the meaning of his allusion in the
letters to Mr. Holman Hunt as his father. I

xxxix

Letters of Edward Lear

remember his telling me that he looked upon
Millais as his artistic uncle.

As a colourist Lear was simple rather than
subtle. Straightforward harmonies of blue
suited him best. Many exquisitely beautiful
water-colour drawings of the blue Apennines
overlooking the aqueduct-lined Campagna
came from his hand. No one has given
better than he has the strange charm of this
melancholy landscape. His success in this
direction is, I think, due to that delicate sense
of style which he possessed and which is
needed to interpret such a classic scene. If
Lear's pictures cannot rank beside those of the
great masters of landscape, the best of his
works will always have a real value for those
who see beyond the fashion of the moment.
This will be so because the artist's work was
always dignified and sincere, and he had a true
if somewhat formal sense of beauty. More-
over, his style was perfectly individual and

distinctive.

H. STRACHEY

NOTE

AMONG the various small details and
elucidations which have reached me
since the first edition of this book was pub-
lished, many have been too late to be incor-
porated in the text of the second impression.
I propose, therefore, to condense these into
a short postscript to my preface.

Through correspondents both known and
unknown many small matters have been
cleared up, and I am therefore able thus to
make use of their kind help in these pages.
Beginning with page xxxii, Lord Tennyson
tells me it was always said in the family " that
the Villa Emily was called after his mother,
Lady Tennyson." This is very probably the
case, and possibly in some way indirectly the
grand-daughter, if a godchild of Lear's, may
have been given the name of one of those he
loved best.

At page 6 the Mrs. Sartoris mentioned

xli

Letters of Edward Lear

in Roman society when Lear was painting
there in 1848, was not Miss Barrington but
her sister-in-law Mrs. Edward Sartoris, the
well-known Adelaide Kemble.

Again at page 66, her husband Edward
Sartoris, is supposed by a correspondent, to
be identified in the drawing companion
" Edward," whom Lear misses so terribly at
Corfu in 1857.

At page 222, mention is made of "one
Luard," who attracts Lear both as a person
and by the " thirty lettered " definition of his
tastes. Now Major-General C. E. Luard, R.E.

Since interrogatively and humbly naming
the plate at page 243 for want of better, as
Gozo, Malta, owing to a similarity of "shere
rocks" between it and a photogravure given
in "The Poems by Alfred Lord Tennyson,"
illustrated by Lear, I have been informed by
an old friend and pupil of Mr. Lear who
possesses a sketch of the subject though also
unnamed, that to the best of his remembrance
he is certain that the scene represents " Kom
Ombos, Egypt," painted to illustrate Tenny-
son's line "the crag that fronts the even, all
along the shadowy shore." A correspondent a
charming old lady of 81, refers in an inter-
esting letter to the expression "Abercrom-

xlii

Preface

bically" on page 129. In her young days,
she says, Dr. John Abercrombie a great Scotch
physician, was the well-known author of " The
Intellectual Powers," "The Moral Feelings,"
and " The Culture and Discipline of the
Mind." These works had a great vogue at
that time, and young ladies were given them
to read. She quotes, " How to live and act
' Abercrombically ' is best shown on pp. 143
and 144 of the latter work. Dr. Abercrombie
chose a high standard, and bade his disciples
adhere to it uncompromisingly." Hence when
Lear says Woodward preaches " Abercrom-
bically," and Fortescue writes and acts so,
they are carrying out the gospel laid down
in these books. Consequently on these occa-
sions their actions are full of correctness and
decorum of a high order.

With reference to the Greek and its transla-
tion on which I had a great deal of correspon-
dence, confusion has been caused by so much
of Lear's Greek having been modern Greek.
I have had kindly help from many Greek
scholars, who have sent me corrections which,
in a later edition if such ever sees the light,
will quite perfect what now stands as faulty.

Of the more conspicuous mistakes in trans-
lation, the following corrections may be

xliii

Letters of Edward Lear

incorporated in this preface. Page 60, " O
mighty Krites, Richard son of Cyrus, wishes
me to send you greeting," should read, " The
mighty judge, Sir Richard Bethell, wishes me
to send you his greetings." Again at page 74,
note 3 should stand as " The Morier, fat and
beautiful," and at page 116, note 4 should
read thus, " The day after to-morrow I will
come to you before eleven o'clock to greet
you and see with admiration your pictures
of Palestine. Fearful must be the ups-and-
downs of the Ionian Sea, such brayings I
never heard of."

At page 253, note i should read, " Let
us talk to-morrow at breakfast."

On page 148, Lear writes 1*1 KoXo'vo" instead
of the correct lm KoAa>v<, perhaps as a pun
on " Colonies."

Lord Sanderson, who was a friend both of
the late Lord Derby and Lear, gives me the
following interesting version of Lear's intro-
duction to his great patron. The information,
which was given to Lord Sanderson by the
late Mr. Latter who had been librarian at
Knowsley since 1871, and previously employed
there he believes from his boyhood was as
follows : " Lord Derby said to one of his
friends who had been staying at Knowsley

xliv

Preface

and was going up to London, that he wished
to find some young artist who would come
down to Knowsley and make paintings of the
birds. The friend (I am not sure if I was
told the name, but if I was I have forgotten
it) promised to make inquiries, and some time
afterwards he saw in a print-shop a small
water-colour drawing of two birds and a
nest, priced at a low sum, which struck him
as having considerable merit. He bought
the drawing and asked who the artist was.
The shopman said it was a young man of the
name of Lear, who was extremely poor and
made these sketches for his living. The friend
sought out Lear, made some further inquiries,
and wrote to Lord Derby that he thought he
had found a young man who would suit. The
result was an invitation to Knowsley and the
commencement of Lear's work there which,
however, was intermittent.

Mr. Latter also told me that on the " first
occasion of giving a lesson to The Queen, Lear,
who was rather roughly dressed and was
always awkward in appearance, went to the
door at Osborne and simply said he wished
to see The Queen. The servants were a good
deal perplexed, but showed him into a room
where an equerry came to see him. On

xlv

Letters of Edward Lear

his repeating that he had come to see The
Queen, the equerry blandly inquired what
was the business on which he came, being
convinced that he was a lunatic. To which
he replied, 'Oh, I'm Lear,' and some further
inquiries revealed the fact that he had an
appointment to give a lesson."

Mrs. Henry Grenfell also gives me some
valuable information as to Lear's introduction
at Knowsley. She writes, " I have often heard
my husband tell how Lear first got introduced
to 'Society' at Knowsley. He (Henry R.
Grenfell) lived much at his uncle's, Lord Sefton,
at Croxteth close by, and was told the story by
the young Stanleys. Old Lord Derby liked to
have his grandsons' company after dinner, and
one day complained that they constantly left
him as soon as dinner was over. Their reply
was, ' It is so much more amusing downstairs ! '
' Why ? ' ' Oh, because that young fellow in
the steward's room who is drawing the birds
for you is such good company, and we like to
go and hear him talk/

" Like a wise man, instead of scolding them,
and after full inquiry, he invited Lear to dine
upstairs instead of in the steward's room, and
not only Lord Derby, but all his friends were

equally delighted with him, and it ended in his

xlvi

Preface

being a welcomed guest there and well known
to the many visitors at Knowsley who became
his friends."

K short time ago I came across a little plan
of visits to be made by Lear before starting

xlvii

Letters of Edward Lear

and reaching Rome, by Christmas Day. It is
exact and minute, as he always was in all he
did, and also proves his " genius " for friend-
ship typified on page 16 in the following
sentence: "I trust to get through 14 or 15
visits out of my 68." It has seemed to me
that a reproduction of this " Progress of Lear,"
in his own handwriting, would be of interest.

I rather think from investigation that the
date must refer to the latter end of 1859, and
that dilatory-wise Lear getting belated, only
arrived as will be seen at page 157, as far as
Marseilles by the 26th of December, on his
journey Rome-ward.

I would take this opportunity of thanking
the public and the reviewers, for the kind way
the first edition of this book has been received.
My reward is in knowing that the memory of
one who was such a delightful and lovable
combination of complexities, has had appre-
ciation not only as the author of the Books
of Nonsense, but as a man.

" Exceeding wise, fair-spoken, and persuading :
Lofty and sour to them who loved him not ;
But to those men that sought him sweet as
summer."

xlviii

PENTIiDATILO.
From Lear's "Journal of a Landscape Painter in Calabria" ( K. Kentley, 1852).

Letters of Edward Lear

CHAPTER I

1847, to August, 1853

ROME, GREECE, AND ENGLAND

THE earliest letter in this collection which
I have found is dated October 16,
1847, written to my uncle, Chichester
Fortescue, by Edward Lear immediately on
his return to Rome (his headquarters at that
time) from his tour in Calabria. The diary
he kept on that journey was published in
1852, illustrated by many striking litho-
graphs made from sketches taken during
the tour, two of which are here reproduced.
The whole of Italy at this time was in a
state of political upheaval and unrest ; the
people felt that the time for more liberal
forms of government had come.

Chichester Fortescue, then in his twenty-

Letters of Edward Lear

fourth year, had, after a brilliant Oxford
career, following the usual course of young
men of the aristocratic class of that period,
just completed the grand tour, including
Greece, with his friend Sir Francis Scott,
of Great Barr. He returned to find a seat
in Parliament in his native county of Louth
awaiting him, and at once was launched
into political as well as social life in London*
The sudden necessity of returning to England
prevented his joining Lear in Rome as he
had intended to do, and was the cause of
the appearance of Sir Francis Scott alone,
at which Lear took umbrage afterwards
regretting his conduct.

Lear to Fortescue.

107, 2DO, VIA FELICI, ROMA.

16 Oct., 1847.

DEAR FORTESCUE, Do not expect an unhampered
& simple epistle as of yore, but allow something
for the effect of your M.P'ism on my pen and
thoughts : Or rather I will forget for a space that you
are a British senator, & write to that Chichester
Fortescue whose shirt I cribbed at Palestrina.

Your letter, (one of 27, awaiting my coming,
which coming took place extremely late last night,)

Rome, Greece, and England

diverts me highly : Proby l my constant com-
panion (& few there be better,) agrees with me
about your view of the road to Aviano which we
have only just, oddly enough gone over. Avellino
is certainly exquisite, & so is Mte. Vergine when
not in a fog, But of Apulia we saw little, only
from hills apart, because why? the atmosphere was
pisonous in Septbr. Nevertheless Proby went to
Cannae, and I believe found one of Annibals shoes
or spurs, also a pinchbeck snuffbox with a Bramah
lock belonging to a Roman genl. I rather chose
to go see Castel del Monte, a strange record of
old F. Barbarossa & which well repaid no end of
disgust in getting at it. We saw the tree Horace
slept under at Mte. Volture, & were altogether
much edified by the classicalities of Basilicata.

I will begin from the beginning. First then I
went (May 3) to Palermo, & on the nth set
out with Proby for Segestse. Excepting a run
round by Trapani & Massala, & a diversion to
Modica, Noto, and Spaccaforno, one Sicilian giro
was like that of all the multitude. The Massala trip
does not pay & the only break to the utter
monotony of life & scenery occurred by a little dog
biting the calf of my leg very unpleasantly as I
walked unsuspectingly in a vineyard. At the caves
of Ipeica we became acquaint with a family of

1 John, Lord Proby, eldest son of the Earl of Carysfort, of
whom Lear speaks as such u an excellent companion," was a
friend of long standing. He died in 1858.

Letters of Edward Lear

original Froglodytes : they are very good creatures,
mostly sitting on their hams, & feeding on lettuces &
honey. I proposed bringing away an infant Frog,
but Proby objected. Siracuse only wanted your
presence to make our stay more pleasant : I waited
for and expected you every day. We abode in a
quarry per lo piu, & left the place sorryly. From
Catania we saw Etna & went up it : a task, but
now it is done I am glad I did it : such extremes of
heat and cold at once I never thought it possible
to feel. Taormina the Magnificent we staid at 4 or 5
days, & then from Messina returned by that abomin-
able North Coast to Palermo, just in time for the
fete of Sta Rosalia a noisy scene which made me
crosser than ever, and drove away the small remains
of peaceful good temper the ugliness of the North
Coast had left me.

So, 1 9th July we returned to Naples & there,
as at Palermo was Scott & to my disgust no
Fortescue. I fear when Scott sent up your card, &
then entered too soon himself- I fear my visage fell
very rudely. But I wish much now I had seen more of
Sir F. Scott : as he improves immensely on knowing
him. On the 26th we left Messina for Reggio.
(N.B. I have crossed the sea from Naples to Sicily so
often this year, that I know nearly all the porpoises
by their faces, & many of the Merluzzi.) Would
I had gone on to the 2nd & 3rd provinces : but
the revolution which bust out in Reggio prevented
me. What is the use of all these revolutions which

Rome, Greece, and England

lead to nothing ? as the displeased turnspit said
to an angry cookmaid. Returning to Naples for
the 1 99th time, we disposed of a month as I have
said over leaf, in the provinces of Basilicata,
Melfi, Venosa, etc. etc., and were not sorry to have
done so.

Rome is full of fuss and froth : but I believe now
that Pio IX. is a real good man, & a wonder. Rail-
roads, gaslight, pavements, for all to be done in
1960? The last part of my stay here was a blank
from the death of my oldest Roman friend, good kind
Lady Susan Percy. 1

Remember me to my friends, & believe me,
Dear Fortescue,

sincerely yours,

EDWARD LEAR.

107 2 DO VIA FELICI, ROMA,

Feby. 12, 1848.

Your letter of Oct. 25th 1847, ought to have been
answered before now, & I have been going to do so
ever since I had it, but I have said to myself " what's
the use of writing to-day when you haven't 20 minutes
or to-day when you've got the toothache, or to-day
when you are so cross ? Fortescue won't thank you
for a stupid letter, particularly as his was so very
amusing, so you'd better wait you had. And so I
have till I'm ashamed of the delay and therefore I'll
send off note i8th be the letter of what degree of
badness it may. First glancing over your bi-sheeted
1 She was a sister of the fifth Duke of Northumberland.

Letters of Edward Lear

epistle thank you for your introduction to Baring : l
he is an extremely luminous & amiable brick, and I
like him very much, & I suppose he likes me or he
wouldn't take the trouble of knocking me up as he
does, considering the lot of people he might take to
instead. We have been out once or twice in the
Campagna, and go to Mrs. Sartoris, 2 or other
evening popular approximations together. He
would draw ; very well, and indeed does, but has
little practice. Altogether he is one of the best
specimens of young English here this winter, tho'
there is a tolerably good sprinkling of elect &
rational beings too. In fact it is a propitious season,
the rumours of distraction prevented a many nasty
vulgar people from coming, and there is really room
to move. Among families, Greys, Herberts, Clives 3
stand promiscuous ; of young ladies, Miss W.
Horton, & Miss Lindsay are first to my taste, &
of married ones, Mrs. G. Herbert & Mrs. Clive,
then Lady W. is admired though by me not :
she is so like a wren, I'm sure she must turn into
a wren when she dies. The variety of foreign
society is delightful, particularly with long names :
e.g., Madame Pul-itz-neck-off and Count Bigenouff;

1 Afterwards first Earl of Northbrook, Governor-General of
India, 1872-6.

2 Daughter of Lord Harrington.

3 George Clive, a close personal friend of Lear's, was a
barrister and politician, and at this time Judge of County Court
Circuits. He became Under- Secretary of State for the home
department 1859-1862.

Rome, Greece, and England

Baron Polysuky, & Mons. Pig : I never heard
such a list. I am afraid to stand near a door, lest
the announced names should make me grin. Then
there is a Lady Mary Ross, 1 and a most gigantic
daughter whom Italians wittily call " the great
Ross-child," and her mama, " Rosso-antico." ... I
miss the Gordon's 2 and my old kind friend Lady
S. Percy sadly, & somehow the 6 & 3O-ness of my
sentiments and constitution make me rather graver
than of old : also, the uncertainty of matters here
and everywhere, and my own unfixedness of plans,
conspire to make me more unstable & ass-like than
usual. . . .

And now regarding yourself I heard all about your
Greek tour with interest, and that you were returned
to England and for Louth, as you will have found by
a disgusting little letter I sent you at the end of
last October. The most important part of your
letter seems to me that which gives me news of your
being so rich a man 3 : I can only say I am sincerely
glad of it, and I don't flatter you when I say I believe
you will make as good a use of your money as
anybody. I long to know how you like your new
parliamentary life : (Do you know a friend of mine,
Bonham Carter M.P. for Winchester? 4 This

1 One of the daughters and co-heiresses of the 2nd Marquess
Cornwallis. 2 Sir A. and Lady Duff Gordon.

3 Fortescue inherited Red House, Ardee, Co. Louth, from
Mr. Ruxton his uncle, whose wife was a sister of Fortescue's
father, Col. Fortescue of Dromiskin.

* Brother-in-law of Baring.

Letters of Edward Lear

reminds me of " Have you been in India ? " " Yes."
" O then do you know my friend Mr. Jones ? ")
So pray let me hear from you. . . .

Now I am at the end of replying to your letter,
and a very jolly one it is. So I must e'en turn
over another stone as the sandpiper said when he
was alooking for vermicules. You ask what I am
about, making of little paintings, one for Ld.
Canning etc. etc., and one of a bigger growth for
Ld. Ward, but I am in a disturbidous state along
of my being undecided as to how I shall go on with
art, knowing that figure drawing is that which I know
least of & yet is the "crown and roof of things." I
have a plan of going to Bowen I at Corfu and thence
Archipelago or Greeceward, (Greece however is in a
very untravellable state just now) should the state of
Italy prevent my remaining in it for the summer.
But whether I stop here to draw figure, or whether I
go to Apulia & Calabria, or whether I Archipela go
(V. A. Archipelago, P. Archipelawent, P. P. Archi-
pelagone) or whatever I do, I strongly long to go to
Egypt for the next winter as ever is, if so be as I can
find a sufficiency of tin to allow of my passing 4 or

5 months there. I am quite crazy about Memphis

6 On & Isis & crocodiles and ophthalmia &
nubians, and simooms & sorcerers, & sphingidce.

1 Afterwards Sir George Fergusson Bowen, and successively
Governor of Queensland, New Zealand, and other colonies.
At this time he was President of the University of Corfu, and in
1854 he was appointed Chief Secretary to Sir J. Young, Lord
High Commissioner of the Ionian Islands.

Rome, Greece, and England

Seriously the contemplation of Egypt must fill the
mind, the artistic mind I mean, with great food for
the rumination of long years. I have a strong wish
also to see Syria, & Asia Minor and all sorts of
grisogorious places, but, but, who can tell ? You see
therefore in how noxious a state of knownothingatall-
aboutwhatoneisgoingtodo-ness I am in. Yet this is
clear : the days of possible Lotus-eating are diminish-
ing, & by the time I am 40 I would fain be in
England once more. . . .

But a truce to growling and reflections. I should
have told you that Bowen has written to me in the
kindest possible manner, asking me to go and stay
with him at Corfu and I shall regret if I can't do so.
I wish to goodness I was a polype and could cut
myself in six bits. I wish you were downstairs in
that little room.

The introduction to Baring, afterwards first
Earl of Northbrook, of which Lear here
speaks with such genuine pleasure, was
to be the beginning of a friendship which
lasted until his death. Baring, throughout
his long and varied public career, was not
only a true friend to him, but also a patron
of the kindest and most generous description.

In the summer of the same year, Lear
undertook a long-desired visit to Greece, in
the company of Canon Church, another

Letters of Edward Lear

old friend and patron. To this visit we are
indebted for one of the most beautiful pictures
he ever painted, a large oil-painting of Ther-
mopylae. Several replicas of this work exist,
but I believe that the one possessed by
Fortescue and reproduced in this book, is
the original.

HOTEL D'ORIENT, ATHENS,

July 19, 1848.

Here I am having made somewhat of a dash into
Greece, but most unluckily, obliged to haul up and
lay by for the present. You may perhaps see my
handwriting is queerish, the fact is I am recovering
rapidly thank God, from a severe touch of fever,
caught at Platcea & perfected in ten days at Thebes.
I did not think I should ever have got over it, nor
should I, but for the skill of two doctors, & the kind-
ness of my companion Church. I was brought here
by 4 horses on an Indiarubber bed, am wonderfully
better, & in that state of hunger which is frightful
to bystanders. I could eat an ox. Many matters
contributed to this disaster, first a bad fall from my
horse, and a sprained shoulder, which for three weeks
irritated one's blood, besides that I could not ride.
2nd. A bite from a Centipede or some horror,
which swelled up all my leg & produced a swelling
like Philoctetes' toe, and lastly, I was such a fool ;
as go to Platcea forgetting my umbrella, where
the sun finished me. However, I don't mean to

Rome, Greece, and England

give up and am very thankful to be as well as
I am.

I came you know here on June ist with Sir
S. Canning, 1 and staid a fortnight working like mad.
On the 1 3th Church and I set out. Chalcis is most
interesting & picturesque, what figures ! would, ah !
would I could draw the figures ! We then resolved
to do Eubcea, so, igth, Eretria, very fine. Aliveri,
& Kumi. 2 1 st. Pass of mountains, grangrongrously
magnificent ! Alas ! for the little time to draw ! 28th
Lamia. 2gth a run up to Patragik a queer mountain
place. All these things we were constantly warned
off, as full of rebels, brigands &c., but we found all
things as quiet as Pimlico. 3Oth Thermopylae! how
superb! & Bodonitza. July ist. Costantino &
Argizza. 2nd Proschino & Martini. 3rd, over
Kokino & the mountains to the Thebes. Only this
last, of the last 3 days was good. Thebes is sub-
lime, but as I said, the day following it became a
grisogorious place to me.

I must stop for I am not much writable yet. Give
my love to Sir F. Scott if you see him & to Baring :
I am glad he is secretary or anything good, as he
is such an extreme brick.

THERAPIA, 2$th August, 1848.

Your kind letter, just exactly though what \
expected, came to-day, much sooner than I anticipated.

1 Sir Stratford Canning, afterwards Lord Stratford de Red-
cliffe, at this time Ambassador at Constantinople.

Letters of Edward Lear

Alas! of myself I can give you but a most flaccid
account, greatly to be summed up in the word " bed,"
but not wholly so. However I have known perfect
health for 1 1 years thank God, and if the tables
are turned I must not be ungrateful, indeed I have
been able to suck a large lesson of patience out of
my 2 months compulsory idleness, and I hope I may
be like any Lamb if ever we meet again.

I continued to recover after I wrote to you,
(2Oth July) & left Athens in good spirits & pretty
strong, (i.e. I was able to walk as far as the Acropolis
slowly, & with a stick,) on the 27th to Alexandria.
Then I speedly fell ill again, but differently : yet
when I got to Const ple I was obliged to be taken
up to the Hotel in a sedan chair. Well, after two
days I went up to the Embassy & was instantly
put to bed with erysipelas & fever, and did not
emerge on the banks of the Bosphorus till about
August 13 ; and then very feebly. Since then I
went a-head but had bad fever fits from not minding
diet : to-day as 2 days have gone and the enemy
comes not again, I have hope an am an hungered.
Hunger! did you ever have a fever? No con-
sideration of morality or sentiment or fear of punish-
ment would prevent my devouring any small child
who entered this room now. I have eaten every-
thing in it but a wax-candle and a bad lemon.
This house is detached from the big Embassy Palace
& is inhabited by attaches, and though Lady Canning *
1 Wife of the Ambassador.

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is as kind as 70 mothers to me, yet I see little of
them. Could I look out on any scene of beauty,
my lot would be luminous ; bless you ! the Bosphorus
hereabouts at least, is the ghastliest humbug going !
Compare the Straits of Menai or Southampton
Waters or the Thames to it! It has neither form
of hill nor character of any possible kind in its
detail. A vile towing path is the only walk here

or a great pull up a bare down, of course, sun
and climate make any place lovely, & thus all the
praises of this far-famed place I believe savour of
picnics, &c., &c. However I have seen but little
of it so I will not go on, but lest you think ennui
or illness disgust me let me say, that Thebes &
Athens shed a memory of divinest beauty over much
worse and more tedious sufferings than those I have
endured here, which indeed are nought but weariness
now.

What to do, my Dear Fortescue when I return
to England ! ! ? ? <; <? j ! (expressive of indelible doubt,
wonder, & ignorance.) London must be the place,
& then comes the choice of two lines ; society, &
half days work, pretty pictures, petitmaitre praise
boundless, frequented studio &c., &c. wound up
with vexation of spirit as age comes on that talents
have been thrown away : or hard study beginning
at the root of the matter, the human figure, which

Letters of Edward Lear

to master alone would enable me to carry out the
views & feelings of landscape I know to exist within
me. Alas ! if real art is a student, I know no more
than a child, an infant, a foetus. How could I. I
have had myself to thank for all education, & a
vortex of society hath eaten my time. So you see I
must choose one or other & with my many friends
it will go hard at 36 to retire please God I live for
8 or 10 years but if I did wouldn't the " Lears"
sell in your grandchildrens time ! But enough of this,
and self. Grandchildren make me think of Baring's
marriage, 1 which I am so really glad to hear of &
shall write to him by this post. That good-natured
fellow wrote to me from England, which I wonder
anyone does so busy as you all must be there. I
sincerely wish him a long career of happiness. But
I trust you will soon follow his example & I keep
on expecting of it.

A year later finds Lear in England, paying
visits to various friends, and meeting again
Lord Derby, who had been his patron from
the first. "The admirable quality of Lear's
work for the Zoological Society had won him
the close friendship and the generous
patronage of the thirteenth Earl of Derby,
for whom he drew the beautiful illustrations
of that now rare volume ' The Knowsley

1 Baring's marriage to Miss Sturt took place in September.

Rome, Greece, and England

Menagerie.' " Thus says his friend and
executor, Franklin Lushington, in his preface
to the " Poems by Alfred Lord Tennyson,"
illustrated by Edward Lear, and brought out
after his death, by Lord Tennyson, as a tribute
to his memory.

TABLEY HOUSE, KNUTSFORD,

i August, 1849.

On leaving town I came to the James Hornby's l
at Winwick, & then migrated with them to
Knowsley. After a week at each place and a day
or two about Manchester, I came for 4 days to
Tatton's of Wythenshawe and now am here for
as many more. . . .

Now all this time I have been living in a constant
state of happiness. My dear old friends Mr. Hornby
& Lord Derby I found just as ever, though 72 & 75
and every day has caused fresh shaking of hands
with old friends. Certainly English people do go
on with friendship just where they left off, as you
go on with a book at the page you last read. So
you see, barring the queer climate I have been
intensely happy, & if one were morbidly inclined,
one would think that like Dives one was enjoying
all one's good things here below. This place is
one of the very nice dwellings in this land, the old
house & the church & the lake are a perfect picture.
So was old Elizabethan Wythenshawe, & at Winwick

2 J. Hornby of Winwick, brother-in-law of Lord Derby.

Letters of Edward Lear

and dear old Knowsley there was a lot of sunshine
quite vavacious to feel. Immense fun we have
had, one has done little but laugh, eat, drink,
& sleep. . . .

I trust to get through 14 or 15 visits out of my 68.
Willingly would I an your house were one : but I
must be back in town by 2Oth Sept. at latest, (then
comes furnishing & fidgetting & fussing,) after that
hard real work. Did I tell you I had finally settled
on taking 17, Stratford Place? 1 signed sealed and
delivered, O! yes. How I hope you will come very
often to look yourself into other lands.

What do you think of my having nearly, all but
become possessor of 40 or 50,000^ ? Fact, I assure
you, it makes me laugh to think what I could possibly
have done with such a statistic heap of ore! How-
ever, I have never it seems been attentive enough to
the old Lady 2 who always said she would enrich me,
so she has died and left all to 30 poor widows for
ever & ever, and much better too that she has left it
thus, for I should not have made as good use of it.
I thought directly I heard of this matter that I would
instantly marry one of the 30 viddies, only then it
occurred to me that she would not be a viddy any
more if I married her.

1 "Stratford Place," now Lear's headquarters when in England
for some years. He had several " shows" of pictures both at 17
and later at No. 15.

2 I cannot trace this old lady, but she was not a relation, I
fancy, for I believe he had no relations outside his own brothers
and sisters, few of whom were still living at this time.

Rome, Greece, and England

LYDFORD, NEAR BRIDESTOW, DEVON,

July 19, 1851.

Enter MARY.

" Mary, has the boy come back from the Post with
the letters yet ? "

" Noa zur, hiss be drewndid ! "
" He's what Mary ? "

" Hiss be drewndid zur in the pewerfil rain."
" Well, it certainly does rain Mary but I hope he
aint drowned, for all that."

Exit MARY.

Re-enter MARY.

"Here be tew litters zur: the boy is all queet
drewndid zur as ever you see ! "

Upon which I took up one, and you having been in
my thoughts during this very morning, says I, how
odd, it's Fortescue's writing!

Upon which I opened it.

Upon which I found it was from Mr. Gladstone.

Upon which I said, Pish !

Upon which I took up letter No. 2.

Upon which I found that was really yours.

Upon which I took this paper and began,

Dear Fortescue, I was very glad to find you were
pleased with the painting, for I have taken long and
great trouble about it, all my artist friends say I have
made an enormous stride, so I hope to go on, but only
by the same road, i.e., constant study and perseverance.
You suppose rightly that I felt Lord Derby's death ; I

17 c

Letters of Edward Lear

have not felt anything so much for many many years :
22 years ago I first went to Knowsley, & have received
nothing but kindness from him & his family ever since,
so it is no great wonder his death should cause me
sorrow. The painting 1 belongs to the present Earl,
who will kindly allow me to have it for some time yet.
Overworked and unwell & unable to bear the dis-
quiet of London, I came at once to this very out of
the way place, as, to get away at all, I was obliged to
select a deadly cheap place, since while here I have to
pay for 17, Stratford Place, also. I shall remain here
and hereabouts, a tour in Cornwall with Lushington 2
etc. till nearly November.

Genus homo! I aint. I'm a landscape painter, & I
desire you to like me as sich, or not at all : if I grow
worse in my professional power, be sure I shall worsen
in all ways : Lord how it does rain ! It always does
here, but that's nothing, for I have a house full of
books, & I've got a little bedroom and a small parlor,
& a big loft made into a study (which would be pleasant
if the cats didn't bumble into it every 5 minutes).
And all that costs 55. a week : & I have 3 meals of
food daily for is. 6d., and I'm finishing some water-
coloured drawings by degrees, and arranging in my
mind some paintings for the winter. There's only a
curate as lives opposite, & keeps bees : all the rest

1 Lord Derby died on June 13, 1851.

* Franklin Lushington, another intimate friend and patron of
Lear and his executor after his death. He was one of the two
Justices in Corfu when Lear first went to reside there.

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of the village is miners, which reside underground.
On Sunday I go to church, when there is a congrega-
tion of 7 or i o and a tipsy clerk. O ! beloved clerk !
who reads the psalms enough to make you go into fits.
He said last Sunday, " As white as an old salmon,"
(instead of white as snow in Salmon), " A lion to my
mothers children " (for alien) & they are not guinea
pigs, instead of guiltless ! Fact : but I grieve to say
he's turned out for the same, & will never more please
my foolish ears.
, I suppose you never come into Devonshire ?

Lord ! how it rains !

I have forsworn by this provincial step of mine all
the luxuries & niceties of the year, to wit, cherries &
all fruit, wine, & a number of other necessaries of life.
We primitive Christians of Lydford have thrown off
such fopperies.

Please recommend all the Grand Jury to buy my
' Journal of a Landscape painter.' I What are you
doing with a Grand Jury?

Where are you going this summer ? O Lord ! how
it keeps raining !

Every post brings heaps of dinner & evening invita-
tions. I think myself well off to be able to decline
them at id. a piece. Now I must go back to my
drawing of Syracuse, which thank goodness, is nearly
done.

1 This was the " Journal of a Landscape Painter in Albania,"
published in 1851 ; the companion Volume in Calabria was
published in 1852.

Letters of Edward Lear

LYDFORD, NEAR BRIDESTOW, DEVON,

26 August, 1851.

I have only just returned here, from a ramble in
Cornwall, (not Simeon but the county, 1 ) and among a
heap of letters, one from you, shall be answered first
of all, barring sister Ann 2 & R. Hornby.

You do perfectly well to project all your uncom-
fortablenesses into my ear & buzzim at all times, for
I can sympathize with you most perfectly, though I
can do nothing else. Lord, how I wish I was a
sucking Socrates like some men I know, wouldn't
you have 5 sheets of advice ! But as I aint I may as
well say that there is nothing of which I have so
distinct a recollection as the fearful gnawing sensation
which chills & destroys one, on leaving scenes &
persons, for which & whom there are no substitutes till
their memory is a bit worn down. I say, there is
nothing I so distinctly remember, because those feeling
are with me already taking the form of past matters,
never again to recur, like cutting ones teeth, measles
&c. Not that one has actually outlived the possibility
of their repetition, but rather, I prevent them by keep-
ing them at arm's length : I wont like anybody else,
if I can help it, I mean, any new person, or scenes, or
place, all the rest of my short foolish life. But the
vacuum which you describe I used to suffer from
intensely, & can quite feel for you. Yet you, it
appears to me, might put an end to all chance of such

1 Cornwall Simeon, his friend, son of Sir R. G. Simeon.

2 His eldest sister,-, who had been a mother to him, she being
the eldest and he the youngest of a family of twenty-one children.

SULI.

(From Lear's " Journal of a Landscape Painter in Albania
and Illyria" 1851 )

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blacknesses, by asking any young (or old if you prefer)
Lady to marry you, which if you asked her she
instantly would, whereas if / asked any, she instantly
wouldn't. Well, I suppose you will one day : but I
shall be in a horrid way till I see her, because as you
are of the sensitive order, you will either be very
happy or you won't.

I shall not allow you to be deceived into the idea,
that I am perfectly tranquil & happy here : quite the
contrary. There is only one fine day out of 15, &
all the rest are beyond expression demoralizing &
filthy. My "straitened circumstances" forbid moving
now I am here, and besides, I hate giving up a thing
when I try it, & having declared I would paint the
Glen scene, I will, I'll stay till I do. I would not so
much care for the wet, as for being obliged when it is
wet, to look at a dead wall and a rubbish heap opposite,
and to see nothing all day but 27 pigs, & 18 cows.
Experience teaches, and a village summer in Italy is
another thing to this. ... I have faithfully promised
to pass some days with C. Church near Ilchester
before I return : these things, with the vain and
frustrated attempts to get some studies of weeds and
rox fill up my beastly Autumn, and send me back
again to Stratford Place.

I don't improve as I wish, which added to the rain,
and the view, prevents "happiness and tranquillity." It
is true I don't expect to improve, because I am aware
of my peculiar incapacities for art, mental & physical :
but that don't mend the matter, anymore than the

Letters of Edward Lear

knowledge that he is to be always blind delights a man
whose eye is poked out. The great secret of my
constant hard work is, to prevent my going back, or
at best standing quite still. I certainly did improve
last year a little, but I aint sure if Lydford and the
rain and the cows won't have made me go back this
year. However I did it all for the best, as the old
sow said when she sat on her little pigs. . . .

Bowen I must write to again, he wrote since I
last did so to you, & I answered him. He is very
good-natured, though as you say his rhinoceros-like
insensibility to the small annoyances he deals out,
would aggravate me. He is going to review my
Albania he says, Bye the bye, I should think that
little book has had as much good said of it as any ever
have. I dare say you saw the Athenczum &c., &
Taifs Magazine for this month. I wish I may get
something for all this. When I return to town I shall
join a nightly Academy for drawing from the life :
thus you see showing you that I believe hard work is
the best substitute for the Ideal. I shall try also to set
about sundry big landscapes. But I will paint this glen,
for all the rain and cows, if I stay here All my life.

Lord ! Lord ! it is such a beastly place ! ! ! ! ! !

1 can go on no more. It makes me almost cry to
think of what I suffer. So I'll read King Arthur.

Write please. 1 wish I could see you, but I think
you'd like me better where I am just now. I'm so
savage.

Alfred Tennyson has gone to Italy.

Rome, Greece, and England

On his return to London, Lear joined the
Academy schools, as the following letter and
pictures will show :

' -

Letters of Edward Lear

Rome, Greece, and England

Letters of Edward Lear

HASTINGS (vulgarly 'astins), SUSSEX,

Jany. 23, 1853.

You know all about how my front room ceiling fell
down last July. Well after a very regular appli-
cation here I completed 3 paintings Venosa, Reggio,
and Thermopylae all 3 far the best I ever didded
(or dod). On the 6th. Jany. having written before-
hand to put my rooms right, I went up to town :
anyhow, my time would be up at Stratford place at
the half-quarter, so I was prepared to go on with a
search for lodgings, you have heard me speak enough
against the darkness of those I lived in. But lo!
when I arrived the horrid fact was announced to me
that that very morning all the back room ceiling had
fallen!

" Is there confusion in the little room ? " (said I to
myself when I saw it). " Let what is broken so
remain ! "

It was indeed high time to quit the stage of
Stratford Place, so I instantly packed up no slight
operation with my immence lot of drawings and boox
and as instantly rushed all over North West
London for lodgings. At length I fixed on a house
which Hansen has taken for himself, and where I
have taken 2 floors for i year at 65, Oxford Terrace,
Hyde Park.

I could not, of course, stay in the Stratford Place
aboad after the fall of Paris No. 2., nor can I
get into the Oxf d Terrace till Feby. 10 so I had
nothing to do but come down here again where at

Rome, Greece, and England

least there are fresh air, and muffins. I must tell you
what you will be very glad to hear : wizz : that my
large Parnussus is bought by the new Slissiter
General my old and kind friend, Mr. Bethell (Sir
Richard to be shortly). 1 It will be capitally placed
and well seen a futuer wh : compensates for my not
having got so much for it as I axd. Wots the hods
so long as ones appy?

I am now doing a huge picture of Syracuse
Quarries ; starved Athenians judiciously introduced
here and there. Since August I have been, as I told
you, painting on an oly different principle, and so
far with gt. success : I hope the Thermopylae will be
hung in the Brit : Institution.

If you come up to town before the lot let me
know might you not rush down to dine here with
me by a 5 p.m. train on Saturday and stay all
Sunday? I now could give you a bed as the
cucumber bed is too cold, and I have got a spare
room. Do you know I have cut 2 new teeth? It
was supposed I was ill of the mumps whereas it
was dentifery. I impute all my health, and sperrits,
and improved art and sense herefrom to the arrival of
these 2 teeth.

My sale of Parnussus, just enables me to pay part
of the annual bills off, and to begin decently at Oxf d
Terrace. Like a nass I gave away all I could, so as
usual have none over to spare. One of my sisters is

1 Afterwards first Baron Westbury. Became Lord Chancellor
1861.

Letters of Edward Lear

horridly poor, and another is going with all her child"
and grandchild" to N. Zealand, and another wants
some port wine being ill, and so on. But the fact is, I
only wish for money to give it away, and there's lots
to be done with it here if people wouldn't be above
looking at what they should do, and wouldn't keep
fussing about those fooly blacks.

I've been reading Brooke's " Borneo " lately. What
do you think of a society for clothing and educating
by degrees the Orang outangs?

The more I read travels, the more I want to move.
Such heaps of N. Zealand as I have read of late ! I
know every corner of the place ditto V. D. land
ditto N. Holland. Will you go there ? Will you go
to the Lake Tchad ? Someday though, if I can't
scrape up money to go up the Nile, I think I shall
ask you to take me there. I should like to go up
there for 3 or 4 months well enough.

Have you ever read "Calabria" yet? If you
haven't do get it and recommend it astuciously to
heaps of Dukes and Dsses. : it will do them good,
and me too.

In town I saw hardly anyone as you may suppose
from my cadent ceiling and its sequences. The
Bethells my sisters &c., and A., and o! Mrs A.
How frigid that icie ladye was no Polar or N. Zemb-
lan tongue can tell ! Not to me though for she is
always very good natured to me but to all things in
heaven and earth generally. By jingo ! it's too dread-
ful to me that awful indifference ! Yet they seem

Rome, Greece, and England

happy together. No, my dear Fortescue, / don't
mean to marry never. You should, but there's time
enough yet for you 6 or 8 years perhaps. In my
case I should paint less and less well, and the thought
of annual infants would drive me wild. If I attain to
65, and have an " establishm 1 " with lots of spoons
&c. to offer I may chain myself: but surely not
before. And alas ! and seriously when I look
around my acquaintance and few men have more,
or know more intimately, do I see a majority of
happy pairs ? No, I don't. Single I may have few
pleasures but married many risks and miseries are
semi-certainly in waiting nor till the plot is played
out can it be said that evils are not at hand. You
say you are 30, but I believe you are ever so much
more. As for me I am 40 and some months : by
the time I am 42 I shall regard the matter with 42 de
I hope.

In one sense, I am growing very indifferent to the
running out of the sands of life. Years are making
me see matters with totally different eyes than I
formerly saw with : but at the same time I am far
more cheerful. I only wish I could dub and scrub
myself into what I wish to be, and what I might be I
fear if I took proper pains. But chi sa ? How much
will be allowed for nature, and early impressions, and
iron early tuition ? Looking back, I sometimes
wonder I am even what I am. I often wonder and
wonder how I have made so many certainly real
friends as I have. Sometimes 6 or 8 of the kindest

Letters of Edward Lear

letters in the world come together, and the effect is
rather humiliating tho' not to my peculiar idiosyn-
cracy.

I hope to go to Reigate to see Ld. Somers. 1 He
is a great favourite of mine, from my knowledge of
many excellent points of his character, from our
having many sympathies in common, and from our
looking at many present-day matters with similar
views. She is a most sweet creature. I think her
expression of countenance is one of the most unmiti-
gated goodness I ever contemplated. I call that a model
of a woman. Bother : I wish they wern't Earls and
Countesses though I don't much care for I've been
so rummy independent all my life that nobody thinks
le ver like rank for ranks' sake I should think.

I don't understand the Gladstone question only as
I detest the bigotry of Denison and Bennett, so I
suppose G. has a shade less of it. 2 Ma non troppo
me ne fido anche a lui.

But I grant your present Govt. are the best lot of
workers we have had for a long time yet, and I do
not see why Conservatives should be growled at if
they advocate moderate reforms, without which a

1 Formerly Lord Eastnor ; succeeded to the earldom in
1852, husband of the beautiful Virginia Pattle (one of the
loveliest women of her time), himself a man of great culture
and artistic perception.

2 After the defeat of Lord Derby's Ministry, Mr. Gladstone
became very unpopular with the Conservative party, and was
violently attacked by Archdeacon Denison and others, who said
that the University of Oxford which Mr. Gladstone had been
elected to represent, could place no more confidence in him.

Rome, Greece, and England

blind man may see that nothing will be conserved at
all very shortly. O mi little i's and pegtops ! how
it do rain and bio !

Will you give my compliments and remembrances
to L d and L dy Clermont. 1

1 Lord Clermont was the elder brother of Fortescue, and had
married a daughter of the Marquis of Ormond.

CHAPTER II
1856 and 1857

CORFtJ AND ENGLAND

HP H REE years later we find Lear settled
* at Corfu, then under British protec-
tion, and he remained there at intervals until
the cession of the Ionian Isles to Greece in
1864. The light thrown by his letters on a
little-known chapter of our foreign policy
gives them an additional interest. In 1854
Lear had gone to Egypt and Switzerland, and
in 1855 again to Corfu, but I unfortunately
have failed to find any letters of those years.
The long gap between the following letters
and the last one quoted may be partly accounted
for, by the fact that several written by him in
the interim never reached Fortescue at all.

Lear to Fortescue.

CORFU, 19 Febry., 1856.

It seems we were a writing to each other pretty
nearly at the same time, for yours which I was truly

Corfii and England

thankful for, is dated Jan. 6th and I sent mine off to
you on the 6th. But the letters were different, mine
I fear me was so glumy that you might have been
uncomfortable about me ever since, notwithstanding
my growlygrumbleraroe (most), known nature, and
therefore and wherefore, I shall send you this, though
it will not be a long letter, rather than not write at all,
for the days are so full of occupation that I vainly try
for leisure. Up at 6, Greek master from 6| to 7f.
Breakfast &c., to 9, then work till 4, or sketching out
of doors, and either dining out or at home with
writing and drawing fill up my hours. First, I wish
you a happy new Year, & continually, if I didn't do
so before. At all events I wish you a lot of happy
new Leap-years.

I still think of making Corfu my head-quarters, &
of painting a large picture here of the Ascension festa
in June, for 1857 Exhibition, & of going over to
Yannina and all sorts of Albanian abstractions.

I hope to send your drawing soon, together with
Sir John Simeon's & Mr. dive's pictures. The reason
I did not send the fellow to your "Morn broadens" 1
was because I could not satisfy myself at all as to the
quality of the one I began. Yours is so finished a
picture that I should not like a less good one by its
side.

Do you know there has been literally no winter
here ; they say it is 27 years since there was so little

1 " Morn broadens on the borders of the dark/ 7 a beautiful
oil belonging to Fortescue.

33 D

Letters of Edward Lear

cold, & still some think we shall have a touch of
rigour in March : in fact, I have scarcely any Asthma,
& no symptom of Bronchitis at all. When I get a
house, you must come out and have a run, & I'll put
you up : I'll feed you with Olives & wild pig, and
we'll start off to Mount Athos. Bowen his marriage I
takes place at the end of April. The Balls are all
over now & gaiety generally, dinners excepted, though
I am going to soon back out of all, by dining early.
The not being able to get any properly lighted
painting room annoys me horribly, and I confess still
to being at times very lowspirited and depressed, but
not so much as before.

You cannot tell me news of the Millais : the blind
girl picture 2 was begun when we were together in
Sussex. W. Holman Hunt has just come back, &
Mr. Tennyson 3 writes is going there. I wish he was
here The sort of lonely feeling of having no one who
can sympathyze professionally with one's goings on, is
very odious at times. Lushington would more or less,
but his work is tremendously heavy, & when he gets
any leisure, he rides or yachts, or shoots, all out of the
way sports for me, except the former ; I did ride all
last Saturday for a wonder, & wish I had tin to keep a

1 He married a Greek, daughter of Roma, who was appointed
Vice-Go vernor of Ithaca in 1858. Her brother married a sister
of the Queen of Montenegro.

2 Now in the Birmingham Art Gallery.

3 Tennyson became a great friend of Lear's, who often stayed
with him when in England. One of his poems is dedicated
" To E. L., on his travels in Greece."

horse. Have you any message to Lady Emily
Ko^rj/otc? 1 The Lord High C. 2 & Lady Young are
very good-natured, but I don't take to Court life, and
not playing cards am doubtless a bore, or rather useless.
But I suppose they are good people. There are really
some very nice people here among the Militia Officers
Ormsbys, Harringtons, Powers, &c. &c., and their
going would aggravate them as stays behind. I am
painting "And I shall see before I die the palms and
temples of the south," for Sir John Simeon, being
Phils by sunset, 3 but my eyes give me a good deal
of trouble, and I don't know how they will bear the
summer.

The following letter from Fortescue, con-
taining an early reference to the celebrated Lady
Waldegrave, may be of interest. Frances,
widow of George, seventh Earl Walde-
grave, was at this time the wife of George
Harcourt, of Nuneham. She was the daughter
of the greatest of English tenors, John Braham,
who in his time carried the musical world
by storm. He was of Jewish descent, a man
of intense personality and independence of
mind, and his daughter inherited these charac-

1 Daughter of the second Earl of Clancarty and a cousin of
Fortescue's. She married Signer Giovanni Kozziris in 1843.

2 Sir John Young was appointed Lord High Commissioner
in 1855.

3 A replica of this was painted for Fortescue this year.

Letters of Edward Lear

teristics together with many others, which
united to make her one of the most remarkable
and interesting women of her day. She
eventually married Fortescue : he had been
devoted to her for years, and it was one of the
happiest of unions.

Fortescue to Lear.

RED HOUSE, ARDEE,

17 Sept. 1856.

. . . During the latter part of the season I passed
almost every Sunday at Strawberry Hill, 1 which Lady
Waldegrave has restored, and made the oddest and
prettiest thing you ever saw. She often asks after
you and says she hopes often to see you there. I am
sure you would like it, and she gets a charming society
around her there. She did not go out last season
at all on account of her father's death. Charles
Braham 2 sang two or three times at the Haymarket
opera with Wagner and Piccolomini. He was dread-
fully nervous, but I am in great hopes will do well.
... I was at a great Nuneham party. We had the
D'Aumale's3 there, and very likeable Bourbons they
are. . . .

1 Strawberry Hill, Walpole's historic villa at Twickenham
during the sixties and seventies the resort of all fashionable
London.

2 Brother of Lady Waldegrave.

3 The Due d'Aumale was the fourth son of Louis Philippe,
and was then living at Orleans House, Twickenham, to which
he had retired after the revolution of 1848.

FRANCES COUNTESS WALDEGRAVE, ^KTAT. 29.
From a coloured lithograph of a crayon drawing by y. A". S-winto

To fact page j6.

Corfii and England

I am for holding hard by the Ideals and, if one
set go, getting another ordered as soon as possible
as we do our coats and boots when they wear out.
This life is meant to be a life of ideals. We ought to
feel like children and live on ideas of the future, as
children do of the time when they will be "grown up."
This is a cheerful view you will say and easier
preached than practised. True I often " reck not
my own rede " and I could give you a reason for
this view of things at this moment presenting itself to
my mind. Nevertheless it is true. And, if we cannot
keep hold of our ideals, Schiller tells us of two com-
panions which never forsook him, and which I suppose
would console and soothe though I think there are
some ideals even they would never replace Friend-
ship and Employment. As to myself, I got through
the Session and season pretty well. ... I made one
Parliamentary effort of some importance in defence of
the [ Irish system of National Education, which I
believe to be a just one and doing great good. I had
a very nice letter from your amiable Lord High
.Commissioner, congratulating me on my speech on
that occasion. Touching you, he speaks thus : " I
ought to have written to you before in answer to your
note about Lear. We have found him a most agree-
able person and a great addition to our society, and
we all like him very much especially Lady Young,
who has taken to sketching with great ardour." I
have always liked Sir J. Y. : I never knew much
of her Ladyship.

Letters of Edward Lear

Lear to Fortescue.

QUARANTINE ISLAND, CORFU,

9. October, 1856.

I have just returned from a 2 month's tour, whereby
I have seen and drawn all Mount Athos, 1 & have
seen Troy, slightly and whereby, which is far better,
I have gained a great amount of health bodily &
mentle, to my great satisfaction & I hope thankful-
ness, & also I trust to the benefit obliquely of many of
my felly creatures who will hereafter peeroase my
jurnles, and admyermy pigchers. Among a heap of 28
letters one from you delights my soal : date R. D. 2
17. Sept. I am glad you are so merry & that you are
enjoying the summer so much. You have not written
to me, (you nasty brute !) for six months. I wish I
could see Strawberry Hill. Have you seen Alfred
Seymour 3 since he came back ? I was very glad of your
parliamentary movement.4 I'm not for holding by
the "Ideals": they've bothered me all my life, and I
now mean to try how far I can make some realities.

1 Athos was his magnum opus.

2 Lear's way of writing Ardee.

3 Alfred Seymour, a barrister, younger son of Henry Seymour
of Knoyle House. Entered Parliament 1863.

* On the iyth of June Mr. Walpole moved a resolution on
the subject of Education in Ireland, which was carried against
the Ministry, but Mr. Fortescue subsequently moved a counter-
resolution, which, after a considerable discussion, was carried.

Corfti and England

Nevertheless a letter from Mrs. A. Tennyson tells me
that Alfred is writing away. (I saw CEnone on the
plains of Troy : she had a pink gown on : one arm
and one breast wholly uncovered, a large mole upon
the latter & a slight moustache on her upper lip :
altogether a different person from what one expected.)

Sir J. Young's notice of me was flattering, tho'
I vow I was never agreeable at all. Lady Y. is a
good-natured lively woman, albeit she takes no
especial part such as her position might warrant, as
to schools &c. &c. I believe seemingly Sir John is
an amiable well-meaning man, but wholly easy &
quite in the hands of Bowen : as indeed how for a
time can it be otherwise, since in so short a time, not
even Solomon could understand these Islands.

Please give my best remembrances & compliments
to Lady Waldegrave. Her conduct to her father
and family has evidently always been heart-action,
and everyone respects her for it, as being like unto
what very few dare to practise.

I trust to paint a magnificent large view of Corfu,
straits, and Albanian hills. This I trust to sell for
500^ as it will be my best, and is 9 feet long. If
I can't sell it I shall instantly begin a picture 10 feet
long: and if that don't sell, one 12 feet long. Nothing
like persisting in virtue. O dear! I wish I was up
there, in the village I mean, now r , on this beautiful
bright day ! However I got unwell, & bluedevilled,
& I made up my mind that I could work no more till
something called out my boddly & mentle N.R.G.S.

Letters of Edward Lear

So I said, I'll go to Mt. Athos : (I should have gone
to M. Negro with A. Seymour had I not missed the
steamer). And off I set on Aug. 7th taking my
servant, canteen, bed & lots of paper & Quinine Pills.
F. Lushington saw me as far as QtXaOes, but then I fell
down a high flight of (19) stone stairs & damaged my
back sadly. I thought I was lame for life, but after 4
days on a mattress, I got on pillows & a horse, &
went over to Yannina & to Pindus, & (in great pain)
to Larissa, & finally to Saloniki. There getting
better I went slick into To "Aytog "O/ooe or the Holy
Mountain, altogether the most surprising thing I have
seen in my travels, perhaps, barring Egypt. It is a
peninsular mountain about 2OOoft. high & 50 miles
long ending in a vast crag, near 7000 feet high, this
being Athos. All but this bare crag is one mass of
vast forest, beech, chestnut, oak, & ilex, and all round
the cliffs and crags by the sea are 20 great and ancient
monistirries, not to speak of 6 or 700 little 'uns above
and below and around. These convents are inhabited
by, altogether perhaps, 6 or 7000 monx, & as you
may have heard, no female creature exists in all the
peninsula : there are nothing but mules, tomcats, &
cocks allowed. This is literally true.

Well, I had a great deal of suffering in this Athos,
for my good man Giorgio caught the fever, & nearly
died, & when he grew better I caught it, but not so
badly. However I persisted & persisted & finally
I got drawings of every one of the 20 big monasteries,
so that such a valuable collection is hardly to be

TEMPE.

(From Lear's " Journal of a Landscape Painter in Albania
and Illyria"

Corfu and England

found. Add to this, constant walking 8 or 10 hours
a day made me very strong, & the necessity I was
under of acting decidedly in some cases, called out a
lot of energy I had forgotten ever to have possessed.
The worst was the food & the filth, which were uneasy
to bear. But however wondrous and picturesque the
exterior & interior of the monasteries, & however
abundantly & exquisitely glorious & stupendous the
scenery of the mountain, I would not go again to the
"Aytoc "O/H>C for any money, so gloomy, so shockingly
unnatural, so lonely, so lying, so unatonably odious
seems to me all the atmosphere of such monkery.
That half of our species which it is natural to every
man to cherish & love best, ignored, prohibited and
abhorred all life spent in everlasting repetition of
monotonous prayers, no sympathy with ones fellow-
beans of any nation, class or age. The name of
Christ on every garment and at every tongue's end,
but his maxims trodden under foot. God's world and
will turned upside down, maimed, & caricatured : if
this I say be Xtianity let Xtianity be rooted out as
soon as possible. More pleasing in the sight of the
Almighty I really believe, & more like what Jesus
Christ intended man to become, is an honest Turk
with 6 wives, or a Jew working hard to feed his little
old clo' babbies, than these muttering, miserable,
mutton-hating, man-avoiding, misogynic, morose, &
merriment-marring, monotoning, many-mule-making,
mocking, mournful, minced-fish & marmalade masti-
cating Monx. Poor old pigs ! Yet one or two were

Letters of Edward Lear

kind enough in their way, dirty as they were : but it
is not them, it is their system I rail at.

So having seen all, and a queer page in my world-
nollidge is Athos! I came back to Saloniki, and
set sail for the Dardanelles, where being obliged to
stay 4 days for a steamer, I spent 3 in seeing Troy.
But dear Mother Ida L could not reach, & I do trust
to go there in the spring of 1857, for there is a some-
thing about the Troad scenery quite unique, if it be
not equalled by the R. Compagna as to grand and
simple outlines.

Thence I came by sea to Corfu, getting here on the
7th & being thrust into this place till Saturday the
nth & be d d to the owls for their folly.

Fortescue to Lear.

RED HOUSE, ARDEE,

()th December 1856.

... I am delighted to hear that, while you abuse
the " Ideal," you are growing rapidly into the
ideal Edward Lear the " model man." Don't you
know that there is somewhere or other an ideal
Edward Lear and an ideal Chichester Fortescue?
There we are arranged in some Divine Museum
probably ticketed to avoid mistakes : the question is,
how like the actual E. L. and C. F. are to their tg ' a .
Do you think we should know ourselves ? Let us try
in God's name to grow as like our ideals as we
can. What a splendid saying that is " till we all

Corfu and England

come to the Perfect Man to the measure of the
stature of the fulness of Christ." . . .

I am looking forward to Tennyson's book. My
temper was sorely tried the other day by old Lady
Ormonde saying that " she wondered how an old
man could write such nonsense as Maud." .

Lear to Fortescue.

CORFU, n. January 1857.

Let me see, the best way to answer your letter
is to look over the document hisself, & go on
a answering it symoniously. ... ist Come remarks
about my Athos tour : I am getting up (by my
usual dilatory but sure process of penning out and
colour) all my drawings of the Monasteries, and
have them ready all but 10 or 12, thanks to after
dinner applecation and stayathomeaciousness. They
are a reemarkible lot of work, as I hope one day you
will see : mind, if you do come while I am here,
I have now a better spare bed-room than you'll get
anywhere in the town, & you should do just as you
liked, barring leaving the windys open all night,
because then my landlord's 29 cats would perforate
the domestic tranquillity of my establishment. I must
tell you with a feeling of pride & conflatulation that
I have made such progress in Greek as to be able
to read the Testament (in old as well as modern,)
quite comfortably : and since I can read the life of
Christ in the Original, my desire of seeing the actual
places he lived in are not to be stoppled any more.

Letters of Edward Lear

1 gain more fixed and real ideas from the actual
history than from our translation.

2ndly I understand you now quite about the
"Ideal": My dear boy, I alas! am a long long
way off my ideal ! & I don't see how it can
ever be got at, though I am notwithstanding
happy to say that I sometimes DO think I am
a little bit nearer the mark than I was. But,
hang it, there must be an ideal Mrs Lear to make
up the perfect ideal, & how that is to come about
I can't yet tell. Some of your expressions on this
head are exactly like my friend Lushington's here,
only that yours come out spongetaneous, whereas his
have to be got at by wrenching and imploring, he
being, though a diamond as to value, yet hidden in
a tortoise's shell, & doing nothing so little as con-
tributing an iota of personal experience for the benefit
of others.

3rd -About the blessed Bowen. On the day your
letter came, burst out the news that he was, to use his
own account, "offered the Gov. Secretaryship of
Mauritius, such change being intimated as a mere
step to further advancement : and that he should
return here as Lord Hpgh] C[om]. l

4th All you said of " Maude " is true & interesting.

O my i! Lady Ormonde!. In this queer place very

few ever heard of Maude or Tennison, & if you hear

of such a song spoken of as from " Maude" so certain

are you to hear " oh ! indeed ! Colonel Maude of the

1 Bowen did not go after all.

Corfu and England

Buffs ! very distinguished officer, but I had not the
least idea he was a poet ! "

5th I trust your Aunt l will recover quite and be
spared to you many years. You are a great comfort
to her, & I certainly should like to see her. Some-
how that does not seem to me so much off the cards
as a year ago. For though I shall hardly come to
England this year, yet if I do so next, I really believe
you'll see me in Patland. Prepare notwithstanding
the ideal, to see me a good deal changed like Dan
Tucker, all de wool comes off my 'ed, & I am older
than Babylon in many ways. I wish sometimes I
grew hard and old at heart, it would I fancy save
a deal of bother : but perhaps its all for the best.

There, that is all of the answering. And I must
needs wind up with a short & serious account of
myself. On coming out of Quarantine, the brutal
earthquake having spifflicated my old rooms, I had to
remove, & I thought it better to get an expensive
place at once, on condition I could find a room for
work. Whereby I took the ground floor of Scarpa's
house on the Condi Terrace, or more properly speak-
ing, Bastione, St. Atanasio, for which I pay 6 a
month. This is the plan of the baste. I. is my
stewjew 30 feet long : 3 windys all a looking to
the North East, whereby the light is always perfect.

1 Mrs. Ruxton, widow of Mr. Ruxton of Red House. She was
devoted to her nephew Fortescue, and this affection was fully
reciprocated by him. He spent much of his time with her at
Ardee.

Letters of Edward Lear

This room I use only as a study, Greek & painting.
My great 9 feet canvas makes a good show of work
in it just now. 2. is the sitting & dining room : very

nice & comfortable, library, good table, matting, &
very old prints of Oxford Terrace around : Tennyson,
Lord Derby, & Mr. Hornby portraits : various Athos
oddities here & there. 3. is a small & sinopotho-
mostic chamber adorned with my framed sketches &
pick pictures as are finished, for people to come
& see. Vich the coming of a live Markis & Mar-
chioness (Drogheda) and several other membiers of
the Peeriage vos the proudest moment of my life.
4. is my bedroom plain & comfortable. 5 a lumber
& spare room to be done up proper for you when
you come. 6. my man Giorgio Kokali's 1 room. It
is Mr. Kokali's opinion & compliment that the painting
I am now doing of Corfu will prevent all other
Englishmen coming here, for says he Start ilvai UHTTE rfjv

dtvaiv, roaov aicpta>c OTI icavcva SlAet va irXrip^aet va IX^rj Icto

where's the good of people paying for coming so far
if they can see the very same thing at home ? Giorgio
is a valuable servant, capital cook, & endlessly obliging

1 Giorgio Kokali, Lear's faithful servant, lived with him till
he died at San Remo, when his son took his place.

Corfu and England

and handy, not quite as clean as I should like always,
but improving by kindness. 1 teach the critter to
read & write, & he makes long strides !

Over-head live Major & Mrs. Shakespeare, really
clever & nice quiet people. The houses here are so
thin that one hears everything, so good neighbours
are real blessings. Condi Terrace is the " West-end "
of Corfu and we are all more or less swells as lives
in it. Next door lives my friend the Justice F.
Lushington. Further on the Cortazzi, a family of
whom more another time. Then the Parson, which
is a brick. At the other end Colonel Gage, & the
other Justice Sir James Reid. 1 If you come I'll ask
them to come and dine : being a distinct Lord of the
Treasury 2 it behoves a friend to match you with
almighty swells.

Well I set to work fearfully, riz at 5^ always at 6
& to 8J 6 StSaffKoAoe epxfrat.3 And then I paint till 3 or
4 having breakfasted at 9 and I walk a bit till 6. Dine
at 6J, and pen out my Athos drawings till 10. My
'elth is on the 'ole pretty good & I can work longer
than before this year. My big Corfu will be a
stunner, & I mean to try for 500 guineas for him, he
be 9 feet 4 inches long, & 6 feet 'i. I hope to get
him to Manchester in time.

I meant to finish out & out a regular long letter

1 Member of the Supreme Council in Ionian Islands, holding
office of Supreme Justice in rotation, 1837-58.

2 Fortescue was appointed a Lord of the Treasury in March,
1854.

3 " The master comes."

but cannot do so, for 6 letters having come by post,
and among them one very sad one from Holman
Hunt, who writes in great affliction on account of the
death of his father, and of Seddon our friend who was
with us in Egypt. 1 So I have to reply to that as well
as 3 others. One is from Alfred Seymour, a very
nice letter. I am so sorry I have not received one he
wrote from Vienna. If you see him, thank him &
say I will write very omejutly. Moreover, the wind
has turned South & so virulent that my chimbly
smokes, so that I can't go on no how, & it is so damp
& cold I must go to bed I fear. This is the only
drawback to the house.

The Palace folk continue to be very kind to me,
& I like them better. Sir John Y. is evidently a kind
good man, & I fancy more able than he was thought
to be. The truth being that it is no easy matter to
act suddenly, where as here, language & people are
unbeknown & all power is in the hands of the secre-
tary. Lady Y. lives too much for amusement, but she
certainly improves & I believe I should end by liking
her very much if I saw more of her. Now my dear
boy I must close this as the Cyclopses used to say of
their one eye. I wish I had written more or betterer,
but can't. My 'ed is all gone woolgathering. Do
you write again as soon as ever you can, if ever so
shortly, & believe me always, Dear Fortescue,
Yours affectionately

EDWARD LEAR.

1 Thomas Seddon, the landscape painter.
48

Corfu and England

May this and many others be very happy New
Years to you.

Here my boy ! give me your eternal thanks for
what I am going to suggest to you as a parliamentary
motion, to be brought out & spoken on by yourself,
to the ultimate benefit of society & to your own post-
perpetual glorification. As soon as Parliament meets,
move that all Sidney Herbert's distressed needle-
women be sent out at once to Mount Athos ! By this
dodge all the 5000 monks young and old will be
vanquished : distressed needle-babies will ultimately
awake the echoes of ancient Acte, & the whole fabric
of monkery, not to say of the Greek church will
fall down crash & for ever. N.B. Let the needle-
women be all landed at once, 4000 at least, on the
South-east side of the peninsula & make a rush for the
nearest monastery, that subdued, all the rest will
speedily follow.

CORFU, May i, 1857.

My dear 4oscue, May 4. Which the above was
writtle flee days ago, but this very mominlet comes a
letter from you, date Apl. 23 ? as usual always one
of my regular pleasures. Now, this letter will neither
be a nice one nor a long one, but, just the hopposit
for it is to say I am coming to England fast as I
can, having taken a redboom at Hansens 16. Upper
Seymour Street, Squortman Pare, and also a rork-
woom or Stew-jew at 15 Stratford Place.

My big picture is in a mess, & without Holman
Hunt's help I can't get on with it, though it is done

49 E

Letters of Edward Lear

as to what must necessarily be done here, and requires
but 2 months of cropping and thought. Pray heaven
I may sell it. I bring to England my drawings of
Athos, I hope, for publication. Also sketches of Corfu
for separate lithogrofigging, & sale here. Also one
or two paintings to finish. Why are you coming say
you? because I can't stay here any longer without
seeing friends & having some communion of heart &
spirit with one who should have been this to me,
I have none. And I can't bear it. And I want to
see my sister. And also another sister who is going
to N. Zealand, before she goes. And some Canadian
cousins. And you. And my dear Daddy Holman
Hunt, & other people. So I'm off.

What a talk we will have! B[owen] goes about
saying that Mauritius is very angry that L[abouchere] *
sent them out a Doctor? and beg for him. ... I am
glad T. Baring is M.P.3 he is a good-hearted boy.
I shall do you the little Jerusalem con amore. Don't
pollygize about your not writing : I gnoo how bizzy u
were. I didn't go off East, because Clive did not
come, he stood for Derbyshire and failed. I hope
I may see Strawberry Hill with you. Give my
remembrances to Lady Waldegrave.

1 Henry Labouchere, at this time Colonial Secretary, became
Lord Taunton in 1859.

2 Humphrey Sandwith, C.B., was appointed secretary at
Mauritius. He had had a varied and interesting career, as
correspondent to the Times at Constantinople in 1853, and
as staff-surgeon, &c., during the Crimean War.

3 For Falmouth.

Corfu and England

How I long to have a talk with you. You seem
to me to be much more be firm-ified & be-moral-
strengthefied and goaheady since we parted. I don't
know what to say about the Secretaryship for the
Colonies. 1 Personally I should like you there
naturally : but the place ought to be filled by one
who KNOWS and studies the subject thoroughly.
(Stanley 2 for instance.) But I don't say you wouldn't
or couldn't. Do not decide hastily on non-application
for it. But who is going out of it? Just a beastly
letter as this never was ! O life ! life ! life ! What is
the next to be ?

Lear to Lady Waldegrave.

RED HOUSE, ARDEE, 14. Sept., 1857.
DEAR LADY WALDEGRAVE, I think you may be
amused by my writing you some account of my visit
to Ireland, if you have courage to look at such an
alarming sheet of paper as this is : but if it appears
too frightful you can easily tear it up, or at least not
read it. You will have heard from Charles Braham
that we were very comfortable at Ravensdale : really
I never saw a more delightful place, nor a better house
than Lord Clermont's, & the days I passed there were
most pleasant. I had known Lord & Lady Clermont

1 Fortescue's friends wished him to apply for the post. He
became Under Secretary for the Colonies from 1857 to 1858,
and again from 1859-1865. Afterwards he was appointed Chief
Secretary for Ireland, &c., &c.

* Edward John, second Baron Stanley of Alderley, at this
time President of the Board of Trade.

Letters of Edward Lear

years ago in Rome, (even before I knew the Fortescue,)
& as they are extremely nice persons, Ravensdale,
including possessors, grounds, gardens, house, hills,
heather, views, peacocks, & rabbits, rivers, dinners,
with all the objects and things in general, seemed to
my thinking a first rate place. Nevertheless I was
curious to see RD, & the Red House, & above all
the Aunt, so that I was not sorry to come here, the
rather that I am always more or less disagreeable if I
am not at work.

The Irish are funny people, & the moment one
lands here it is evident that England & Ireland are
very different countries in many respects. Among
other odd ways of speech, the common people never
by any chance say Yes, or No, : e.g. Is it time to go ?
"It is not Sir" or "It is Sir" Have you cleaned
my boots. " I have Sir " or " I have not Sir." When
we asked at Dublin if the Scientific Association meet-
ing was over, they said " Indeed & it isn't, but the
strength of it is pretty well broken," as if it were a
revolution. But one of the best absurdities is told of
an old woman here, who though pretty well off grumbled
horribly, & when they said to her that for good clothes,
prosperous children, a kind husband & comfortable
house she ought to thank God "And sure don't he
take it out of me in Corns ! " said she. I go into fits
of laughing here, when they call after Fortescue,
" MIMBER ! " and it is also very queer to hear them
congratulate him on being at home again.

But the Wonder and crowning part of Redhouse is

Corfu and England

the Aunt, Mrs. Ruxton : I never saw such a delightful
or so extraordinary an old lady: at 85, she has all the
activity of mind and body of persons at 60 in usual
life, & far more of the bright intelligence, absolute
fun, constant cheerfulness, unselfishness, good sense
and judgment, kindness of thought & deed than
usually can be found united in any individual of any
age. Only she is a little deaf, but that at times, not
always. It is quite singular to observe how she enters
into the interest of all kinds of matters, & never seems
to tire, tho' she is out in the garden by 7, & goes to
bed not before 1 1 at night ! What with her garden,
the grounds, the house, writing letters, visiting her
poor people, attending her schools, (she drives herself
about in a pony-chaise,) reading and talking, she never
seems to have an unoccupied moment, & tho' at first
I thought this might be an unusual state of things,
I find she is exactly the same day by day. The old
lady has still the remains of great beauty & her
expression is one of the most perfectly benevolent &
animated you can imagine. She is immensely fond
of Fortescue, & no wonder, for he is just like a son to
her. Chichester Fortescue has in fact appeared to me
quite in a new light since I saw him here : I always
knew many of his qualities well, his good and general
taste in matters of literature, art, &c., his great truth-
fulness & his warm and generous disposition : but I
was not prepared to find him so active in all county &
parochial business, nor had I ever seen him in the
position of a most affectionate child as he is to Mrs.

Letters of Edward Lear

Ruxton. It is always a great thing to find that longer
and closer knowledge of character makes it more
esteemed & liked, and my stay here has already caused
me to think higher of Chichester Fortescue & to like
him better than I ever did before, & that is saying
no little.

Another point of Mrs. Ruxton's character is her
quiet & regular piety, though that you might assume
from my description of her goodness : she is in a word
a tip top Christian multiplied by 20 & I never believed
I could see so much to admire in any old lady.

Our party is small here only Chichester Hamilton,
Fortescue's nephew, a good quiet lad. (They are all
anxious enough about his brother John, 1 who is near
Benares). And a fourth person is a lady, formerly
governess to Miss F[ortescue]. 2 A very good person
also, but given to enunciate sentences & ask questions
as if she were reading from a book in a manner that
tries our gravity now & then. " Have you ever, Mr.
Fortescue, been induced to tempt the tempestuous
waves of the remote Atlantic in order to visit the
wondrous New World?" "Tea is an innoxious &
wholesome beverage & is acceptable at all times," are
specimens of what I mean : but Miss B. is very full
of information & very amiable & attentive to Mrs.
Ruxton. After prayers & breakfast, I collapse into a

1 John Hamilton was at this time holding a post as Engineer,
and was in the thick of the Indian Mutiny. He died on
October 19, 1858.

a Younger sister of Fortescue, and wife of David Urquhart,
later M.P. for Stafford.

MRS. RUXTON.
From a photograph of a pictu

To face pages 4-

Corfii and England

small studio which they have given me, where I paint
away till luncheon time, & again afterwards till 6,
when I walk with C. F. till 7 : but I am not sure that
the experiment of working in a friends house is a good
one, seeing that I am always wrapped up in what I
am about, and as I rarely succeed as I wish, am in
proportion cross and disgusting. Meanwhile every-
body is very kind and good natured and lets me do as
I please, so that I have nothing particular to growl
at, not even having corns, like the old lady above
mentioned.

DUBLIN ROYAL HOSPITAL,

3. October, 1857.

I have at last left the Red House and its happy
family, for so they really are. I cannot remember
to have been so happy for a long while past. As
for Mrs. Ruxton, she is certainly a more extra-
ordinary and delightful old lady than any description
can convey an idea of : she is so constantly the same
and yet with such varied interest and liveliness that
one cannot help liking her more and more each day. I
am so glad to have a photograph of her with Fortescue,
which is very good I think. 1 On the 26th F. & I
went to Newcastle, which is not in Northumberland
as the school books tell us, but in the county of Down,
& is a village by the side of the omnivorous ocean.
Lord & Lady Clermont had a house there, & the
scenery all about the place is very charming. One

1 The frontispiece is a companion one, taken of Lear and
Fortescue at the same time at Red House.

Letters of Edward Lear

day we passed at Tullamore Park, 1 a really fine place,
full of beautiful ruins & bridges & trees & roads &
mills & hills, & lawns & laurels & a high mounting
above all, up to the top of which, Lady C. F., Miss
Hamilton, 2 & I walked, which was not an easy task
because we 3 had to go at such a pace to keep up with
Fortescue,3 who, having the luncheon in his pocket,
insidiously endeavoured to distance us, to eat it, so our
fears told us, clandestinely, before we reached him.
Nevertheless we all reached the top together, &
behaved very well & amiably, all of us. In coming
down thro' the woods we were seized with frightful
pangs of hunger, & devoted some time to the im-
moderate consumption of blackberries. After that we
found a place where there had been a picnic, & we
amused ourselves very intellectually for a long period
in shying stones at a bottle, which nobody hit, tho 1
after Lady Clermont & I turned & left the spot, 4oscue
& his niece basely made a tinkling sound on the glass,
& declared they had thrown at it successfully. After
that we found a million ot bits of blue paper, torn up
by the picnic-makers in triumphant certainty that
oblivion would rest upon their names thus destroyed :
but we employed a considerable space in sedulously
joining all the little bits, & finally made out two cards
& addresses, viz, " Miss Maconochie " & " Dr. Forde "

1 The residence of the Earl of Roden.

2 Fortescue's niece.

3 Fortescue always outdistanced all walkers, and brought
them in a state of breathlessness to the end of their walks
or climbs.

Corfu and England

which we left openly in the middle of the road, to the
dismay & disgust of all deceitful & presumptious lovers
hereafter.

On Tuesday the 29th we all broke up, & C. F. & I
returned to Red House. A letter came yesterday
from John Hamilton at Dinapore, but to his father, 1 so
its contents were unknown : but the fact of its being
sent seems to be good news, at least of his safety.

dear ! such a many people have rushed upon me,
that I must leave off: This good kind Lord & Lady
Seaton are exactly the same as they used to be 10
years ago. Excuse my detached & absurd note,
because I am so distractable.

Lear to Fortescue.

ROYAL HOSPITAL Oct. 3. 1857,
MIMMBR!

1 shall write you a line, though there aint much to
say. I got to Dublin safely, only discompozed a little
because the only person in the

Railway compartment I got into
was a very fat woman, just exactly
like a picture of Jonah's whale I
used to see when a child in a
picture bible. I was horribly afraid S* ^^ ;
she would eat me up & sat expect- - 3111 *: \

ing an attack constantly, till the
arrival of the train relieved me of apprehension. At
the Bilton I found a note from that kind good Lady
1 Husband of Fortescue's eldest sister.
57

Letters of Edward Lear

Seaton, saying as an old acquaintance of mine, Mr.
Drummond & others had left suddingly, & there vos
beds to spear. So I went on, and passed a very
pleasant evening. Some of the party were excursing
in Wicklow, & among them the fair De Salis 1 who
only came in late, & I don't think I delight in her
appearance or manners any more than I used to do.

The Pictures gave great pleasure, & I had a good deal
of talk with fine old Lord Seaton 2 about the Indian
Revolt. He believes that Havelock will succeed at
Lucknow.3 I have pretty well made up my mucila-
ginous mind to cross to Liverpool to-night. The day

1 Daughter of Count Jerome de Salis, and afterwards wife of
Col. Challoner, of Portnall Park.

2 One of the most distinguished soldiers of his time, and a
Peninsular and Waterloo hero. He died in 1862.

3 The city was relieved on the 25th of September

Corfu and England

is highly beastly & squondangerlous, & there is no fun
in going about in the pouring rain in a car to make
calls, so I shall write to Arch d> Strong, & send a book
to Dudgeon's children, whereby you see, albeit I quiet
my conscience, yet I am not so virtuous as You thought.
However, it is all on your shoulders.

So, I shall very probbabbly be in the great Exbt ion>
on Tuesday, after all. Stand at the 2nd arch-place
marked X and looking through the door D. you will
see Syracuse.

I wish I was at Redhouse, a dispensing of Butter.
Goodbye, my dear Mimmbr.

A fortnight or so later, after a series of
visits to Henry Bruce afterwards Lord Aber-
dare another patron of his, Gambier Parry
and many others in the South and West of
England, he finds himself at Wells, with his
old friend Church, now Canon of Wells, and
shortly afterwards he writes in Greek from
Hack wood :

HACKWOOD PARK, HANTS,

Novbr. 2, 1857.

5rt crag orlAAa* raurrjv rr/v CTrioroAi^v,

cif AovStvov avpiov ; r$)] typa^a irpbg va
v fJ.ov, KOL rov tfyavipoaa 5rt r/foAov Trrj-yatva va ycvjuart^a)
'avrov, sav auroc [ ffitXa -y/oa^/tt ort elvai tig TO a<nr\Tr\6v
, aAAa, orav Stv jti^ ^rlAAfi TtVorce, Svvarov Kai KaXbv
flvai va yVfJ.ari^wfJi^v 6/uov. 'O 6
59

Letters of Edward Lear

6 Kvpiog PiKKupSv^ Mfl-e^eXX SAet em <re 7rl/*7ra>

roc

Which is to say, if the Beadons aint at home, what
time shall you be where & when & which ? If I get
no note from them I will call on you at any hour you
will name in a note sent to 16 Upper Seymour St.
or be at the Blue Posts &c.

1 Merely saying to his " beloved friend Fortescue " that he
has already written to another friend to propose himself to dine
with him, but if he does not do so he will dine with F. He
ends up with " O mighty Krites, Richard son of Cyrus wishes
me to send you greeting." Lear's Greek is " atrocious," so
scholars I have consulted have told me. But with so exact a
man, so minute in detail and with such a perfect ear, as Ruskin
said, for versification, I cannot help thinking that perhaps a
part of what seems to the outsider hopelessly incorrect may
have been intentional, and that there was " a method " of his
own in his madness. In English he joked and, as it were,
executed acrobatic somersaults of imagination to the wildest
degree in that language, and it is possible he may have
attempted the same thing in Greek, a sample of which may
be seen in his translation of " Oly mountain," the wrong
turn of the apostrophe, being, I feel sure, made intentionally.

It has been thought best to give the Greek sentences in
words as near the original as possible, but this is difficult, as
Lear always turned his Greek I's upside down besides giving
a double-lined comet-like tail to them, and ornamented with
wonderful flourishes and additions many other letters. Besides,
he was, it must be remembered, learning ancient and modern
Greek at the same time, and who knows what combinations
he may have effected consistent to his own mind if to no
other ? Therefore I ask leniency on the part of readers
understanding Greek, both as to orthography and translation.

I would also add in this note that Lear loved to " frisk and to
gambol " in spelling as in all else, and the results in the following
letters have been most carefully preserved by both editor and
publisher, and in no case are misinterpretations or misprints.

CHAPTER III

November, 1857, to March, 1858

CORFCl

SETTING out for Corfu again on the 2Oth
of November, he writes :

Lear to Fortescue.

PAIRLIM HOTEL, FOLKESTONE,

20 Nov. 1857.

I got your last letter at Hastings, together with an
extremely nice one from Chi : Many thanks, & also
for the extracts from dear old Mrs. Ruxton's letter.
Do not forget to thank her from me, & also the Chi.
for his letter.

All the ill luck and bad omens possible seemed to
conspire to prevent my starting, ist the ticket master
at Lewes gave me a wrong ticket, (on my way to
Bournemouth,) so I was hauled up at Brighton, &
nearly missed the Portsmouth train : but I didn't.
2nd. We ran into a semishunted goods train at Botley,
& squashed our carriages. Happily we were not

Letters of Edward Lear

going fast. Meanwhile my back was very badly
jarred, & I was unable to walk without great pain.
Laying up next day at good Mrs. Empson's bettered
me & tho' still very lame, I am now getting over the
wrench. At first I thought I could not have started
at all. . . .

To-day at noon I am going to start by the
stereopyptic sophisticle steamer & so on to Paris
the weather being miscelaynious & calm, thanks be
to Moses.

I am glad to know you are working hard : the
more you conquer the details & grammar of the
" whole duty " of the Colonies, the better for you.
Know every detail of every kind in all the colonies
if you can, & the character &c. of everybody em-
ployed. For, whenever (if ever) the time should
come that you may put into practise theories of a
wider & grander kind than fill the noddles of many
men, then you will feel the advantage of being up to
the full use of the instruments & circumstances you
have to work with & by to shift, control, or forbid,
as fate may turn up. I quite understand your dinner
at the Chiefs : he is a good easy man used to public
life : voila tout. 1

Of you, I heard a grumpy man say a few days
back, to my great pleasure, " That F. used to be the
veriest idler, & would have turned out good for
nothing in spite of his head if he hadn't begun to
work but now he does, I can see, besides being told

1 Labouchere.
62

Corfu

so." I hope to be in Corfu by the first week in

December.

Lear to Fortescue.

CORFU, December 6. 1857.

I cannot persuade myself to do anything for more
than i o minutes. Painting, drawing, looking at sketches,
reading all kinds of books, German or Greek exercises,
sitting still, or walking about, not a possibility of
application can I make or discover. But for all that I
shall try to get a letter done for you, because I shan't
be able to get on at all unless you write, & I know I
can't hear till I write first. So here goes, for a
fortnight's journal. The knock-shock-sprain which I
got in that Southampton train bothered me a good
deal as I left England, & it is by no means clear
away yet, but I got off hook or by crook on the 2Oth,
& had a neasy passage over to Boulogne, none the
less so that there was Lady Somers to talk to &
look at : she is certainly the handsomest living woman.
It seems that she, S, & Coutts Lindsay really landed
at Athos, & lived there 2 months ! in tents, various
mucilaginous monx coming now & then to see them.
A few more such visits would bust, or go far to bust,
the Greek monasticism, I think.

Well, I didn't stay in Paris, except that night, &
got on to Strasbourg on the 2ist, sleeping there, and
going on to Heidelberg on Sunday morning. The
rest of the day I passed with the Bunsens, 1 who live

1 Baron and Baroness de Bunsen. He had been German
Ambassador in London 1841-54. She was the eldest daughter
of Benjamin Waddington, of Hanover.

Letters of Edward Lear

in a house opposite the castle : I thought that evening
very pleasant and quiet, talk & music & domesticity,
which you know are in my way. Next afternoon,
23rd, I got to Frankfort & cut away all night long,
sustaining myself by a big bag of books, which I
read by lamplight till day break. Have you read C.
Bronte ? It is very curious & interesting. The morn-
ing & middle of Tuesday 24th, I passed at Dresden,
certainly the prettiest city I ever saw, but how cold it
was ! Allowing time to dine, I got on to Prague by
night, & without stopping, to Vienna early on the
25th. Undoubtedly the railroads in Germany are
most delightful, when compared with ours ; neverthe-
less long continuance of railway travel plays the deuce
with my irritable mind & body. I found out the
hearty good Morier soon, & saw a good deal of him
that day & the next. We got on very simultaneously,
(none the less so because he speaks of you in a way
that pleases me,) & had long talks on various
subjects. Robert Morier l seems to me a man who
thinks about his business or profession, & I imagine
he would be one to get on, if want of talent and want
of principle were not a sure pass to prosperity. We
talked too of Tennyson, Pattledom, Strawberry Hill,
& all kinds of things ; nor was a ve*y good dinner
and wine an item of my visit to be left unnotified.

1 At this time unpaid attache at Vienna. He fulfilled Lear's
prophecy, and had a long and useful diplomatic career. In
1884 he became ambassador at St. Petersburg till his death in
1893.

Corfa

Early on Friday 27th I was off to the Rail again, &
certes no scenery can be more striking, beautiful, won-
derful than that of the R.way between Vienna and
Trieste. But I wasn't sorry to be at my journey's end,
nor the next day, to embark in the "Jupiter" for Corfu.
The first part of the voyage was Hell : that is a
mild expression for the torture I suffered, but I can't
find any stronger at present : the second part was
better, and anyhow the whole was short, for we were
at Corfu by 8 on Monday 3Oth. And as my man
Giorgio came down to meet me, and as my boxes
went straight to my rooms, which I found all arranged
just as I left them, & as I had only to unpack my
things, you can't tell how absolutely ridiculous the
effect of the whole common placidness of matters was
& is to me. Moreover, Lushington came & asked
me to dine that day, & Sir James Reid the next, &
the 46th mess for the next, & the Youngs for the
next, & as in all these cases, plates, food, conversation,
& persons were precisely the same as they all were
6 months ago, the ludicrous sentiment of standstill &
stagnation was truly wonderful. Wonderful at first,
but gnawing & shocking to me now. My dear
Chichester, I do not know how I shall bear it, being
an ass : & if you don't write, & if others don't
write, I really can't tell what I shall do.

Just figure to yourself the conditions of a place
where you never have any breadth or extent of
intellectual society, & yet cannot have any peace or
quiet : Suppose yourself living in Piccadilly, we will

65 F

Letters of Edward Lear

say, taking a place with a long surface, from Coventry
St. to Knightsbridge say. And suppose that line
your constant & only egress & ingress to & from the
country, and that by little & little you come to know
all & every of the persons in all the houses, & meet
them always and everywhere, & were thought a brute
& queer if you didn't know everybody more or less !
(Vouldn't you wish everyone of them, except a few,
at the bottom of the sea ? Then you live in a house,
one of the best here it is true, where you hear every-
thing from top to bottom : a piano on each side, above
and below, maddens you : and you can neither study
nor think, nor even swear properly by reason of the
proximity of the neighbours. I assure you a more
rotten, dead, stupid place than this existeth not.

All this you would understand as coming from me,
but others would speak differently of the place. Lady
Young for instance calls it Paradise. No drawbacks
annoy her at home, and between horses, & carriages, &
yachts, she is away from it as she pleases. The Reids
do not dislike Corfu as they would, had they not a
nice family, and themselves to care about. The
Cortazzi are gone, almost all the military offices are
full of new people. My drawing companion Edward I
is gone, & I miss him terribly. I vow I never felt
more shockingly alone than the two or three evenings
I have staid in.

Yet all this must be conquered if fighting can do it.
Yet at times, I have thought of, I hardly know what.

1 I cannot trace this companion of the former visit.
66

Corfu

The constant walking and noise overhead prevents my
application to any sort of work, & it is only from 6 to
8 in the morning that I can attend really to anything :
Then 6 ytpog mSao-KaXoe fjiov tpxtTai, KO.I joyaojii$a 6/iov
etc ri]v iraXaiav 'EAAevtKvjv yXwaaav. 1 I am beginning

bits of Plutarch and of Lucian dialogues. And
then, if I can't sleep, my whole system seems
to turn into pins, cayenne-pepper, & vinegar &
I suffer hideously. You see I have no means of
carrying off my irritation : others have horses, or
boats, in short : I have only walking, and that
is beginning to be impossible alone. I could
not go to church to-day. I felt I should make
faces at everybody, so I read some Greek of St.
John, wishing for you to read it with some of
Robinson's Palestine, some Jane Eyre, some Burton's
Mecca, some Friends in Council, some Shakespeare,
some Vingt ans apres, some Leakes Topography, some
Rabelais, some Tennyson, some Gardiner Wilkinson,
some Grote, some Ruskin & all in half an hour
O ! doesn't " he take it out of me " in a raging worry ?
Just this moment I think I must have a piano : that
may do me good. But then I remember Miss Hendon
over my head has one, & plays jocular jigs continually.
Then what the devil can I do ? Buy a baboon & a
parrot & let them rush about the room? AEV loy><u
I still hold to going to Palestine if possible.

1 My old master comes and we work together upon the
ancient Greek language.

2 Perhaps I shall discover something.

Letters of Edward Lear

If I could but get myself comfortable and untwisted by
the noise & general discomfort of these houses, I
think I could bring myself right yet, but I cannot tell.
Sometimes I think I must begin another big picture,
as I want something to gnash & grind my teeth on.
If Helena Cortazzi had been here, it would have been
useless to think of avoiding asking her to marry me,
even had I never so little trust in the wisdom of such
a step.

That's enough of me, I think for this once. If you
don't write a lot about yourself you are a spider &
no Christian. Meanwhile things here are not as, by
all I was led to suppose, they were represented to you
as being. . . .

There is one thing here which cannot be grumbled
at : at present at least. The weather, it has been
simply cloudless glory, for 7 long days & nights.
Anything like the splendour of olive-grove & orange-
garden, the blue of sky & ivory of church & chapel, the
violet of mountain, rising from peacockwing-hued sea,
& tipped with lines of silver snow, can hardly be
imagined. I wish to goodness gracious grasshoppers
you were here. I believe the cussed people above
stairs have goats or ox feet, they make such a deed
row. Among the chilly mocky absurdities, opposite
me on Friday, as I dined at the Palace, sat Lord
Clermont's first cousin, L. J. E. Kozziris : l neither

1 His mother was a daughter of the second Earl of Clancarty,
a cousin of the Fortescues, who in 1843 married Signer
Giovanni Kozziris.

Corfii

Greek, Irish, nor English. As for Lady Y. she looks
handsomer and younger than ever. Lord & Lady
Headfort l are expected daily. How comes it Lord
Strangford 2 is dead?

Dec. 2jth, 1857.

I am glad to hear of your riding: I wish to
heaven I could, or purchase a Gizzard. Tell me
something of the general aspect of things at Red
House, including the curly brown dog & the two
milkophagous calves who abode in the square field.
I had met Norman Macdonald 3 at Lord Cannings
sometimes. Lady Duller 4 his sister, the generals
wife here, has collapsed into nonreception along of
his demise.

The uppermostest subject in my feeble mind just
now is my Palestine visit. I read immensely on the
matter, and am beginning to believe myself a Jew, so
exactly do I know the place from Robinson, De
Sanley, Lynch, Beaumont, Bartlett, & the old writers
from the Bourdeaux Pilgrim to Maundsell, not to

1 The second Marquis.

* The seventh Viscount. He had been Under Secretary of
State for Foreign Affairs in 1846. He had some reputation as a
political journalist, but was better known in his early career for
his connection with the " Young England " party.

3 He was Controller of the Lord Chamberlain's Department.
He was seized with apoplexy while talking with Lady Ely at
Lady Elizabeth Hope Vere's, and died quite suddenly at St.
James's Palace on the ist of December.

* Wife of Sir George Buller, G.C.B., who after serving in the
Crimean War and the first and second Kaffir Wars, was now
commanding a division in the Ionian Isles.

Letters of Edward Lear

speak of Stanley, & Josephus, whose works I can now,
thank goodness, read in their natural garb. Now my
particular idea at the present hour is to paint Lady
Waldegraves 2nd picture from Masada l whither I
intend to go on purpose to make correct drawings,
though, whether I shall get up without breaking my
neck is a doubt. In that case Lady W. cannot have
my painting. My reason for this choice is, that not
only I know the fortress of Masada to be a wonder of
picturesqueness, but that I consider it as embodying
one of the extremest developments of the Hebrew
character, i.e. constancy of purpose, & immense
patriotism. This subject I believe will as it were
" match " Jerusalem well.

At present I think my view for Lady W. will either
be from Scopus, or from the glen coming up from
S. Saba. I shall like to show her all the drawings
of this place which I wish I could see her now
walking past, or into this room, with the browny-
lilac velvet many banded dress, and a nosegay in her
hand. You are certainly right in thinking most
women are like Copses after her : only Lady Y. here
is not copse-like being highly vivacious : but she
lacketh other of my Lady's qualities which one would
fain see, hear, & be sensible of. Why the deuce I
compare them I don't know, only Lady Y. is the only
lively creature here. They have been very good-
natured since I came, but I never go to the evening

1 Now in the possession of the Hon. Mrs. Stanley, of Quantock
Lodge.

parties, rising as I do, at a little after 5, I cannot bring
myself to dress & go out to parties wholly without
interest, at 10.

They asked me on the i5th to meet Lord S. de
Redcliffe I at a luncheon. He is a remarkable old
gentleman, & I was surprised to see him so unbroken
& with his eagle eye still so clear. I sat next to Lady
Y. at table, and Lord S. shook hands with me across,
and was otherwise exceedingly amiable nothing can
be more regal and sostenuto than his manners, and
one can only believe in his temper by observation of
his brow and eye. Old Lady Valsamachi (Mrs.
Heber 2 ) rushed in where angels fear to tread &
came unasked to the Palace, with the ancient bore,
her Greek husband ; but Lord S. was I remarked
particularly kind and affable. Just as he went off in
the steamer there was an Earthquake, big enough to
send people out of their houses & the bells ringing,
but whether the coincidental concussion was caused
by, or for, Lord S. de Redcliffe, I leave you as a more
educated man than myself, to determine.

Since that day I have not been to the Palace, not
even to see the live Marquis & Marchioness of Head-
fort^ who with Miss Erskine, Lady H's reputed

1 See note, p. n. 3 Widow of the Bishop of Calcutta.

3 Lady Headfort was Lady McNaughten, widow of Sir
William Hay McNaughten, Bart., of the Bengal Civil Service.
Assassinated at Cabul, Dec. 25, 1841.

+ Afterwards knighted. Had been private secretary to the
Earl of Derby in 1852. He was at this time British Resident at
Cephalonia.

Letters of Edward Lear

heiress, & Col. Talbot* on his way to his Island
Kephalonia, arrived a week ago. Lord H. is described
to me as a well got up blase" old boy ; milady not
to be perceived clearly, along of Indian shawls and
diamonds, of which jewels and of her concealment
of them, during a flight from some Afghan place
when she was Lady Me. N., wonderful tales are about.
The weather has been utterly wonderful, this the
28th day since I came, being the first with a single
cloud in it ! Nor has there been the least wind, or
temporal annoyance of any kind, but always a lovely
blue & golden sphere about all earth sky & sea.
How different from the 2 preceding years this ! And
the Olives are one bending mass of fruit. I have
however walked but little. I grow weary of the 3
dull miles out & 3 back in order to reach any
scenery. And although J. has walked with me at
times, yet it is a weary silent work, & now that he
has got a dog, one cannot help feeling how far more
agreeable it is to him to walk with that domestic
object, to whom he has not the bore of being obliged
to speak. We are on perfect good terms, but all or
anything might happen to either, & neither would
dream of telling the other, a state of things I do not
call friendship. But on this and such a matter I
dwell as little as possible. I have to live alone &
do so though ungracefully : (Whereas you who are
pretty well alone as to the possibility of others sym-
pathyzing with you in your principal interests, manage
to do so remarkably well). So I stay at home, and

EDWARD LKAR.
From a photograph taken about ifyj or 1854.

To/ace pae 72

Corfti

oppose the morbids. I can tell you that I miss Helena
Cortazzi though a few now & then. The Reids
are good and friendly people, but of them even I see
little. Campbell of the 46th (Simeon's cousin) is a
really nice fellow, but all these people are mad
after snipes & woodcox now, & abjure all intellect
& repose. Edward my last years . companion I miss
abominably. Bunsen I as I said is a good little chap,
clever, but talks like 50 thousand millions of tongues.

CORFU. Jan. 3. 1858.

mi i ! how cold it is ! The weather hasn't changed
after all, & I believe don't mean to. It's as bright
and cold & icicular as possible, and elicits the ordibble
murmurs of the cantankerous Corcyreans. As for the
English they like the cold generally, I don't : Not-
withstanding which, I must own to being in absolously
better health than for I don't know how long past.
Yesterday I went up a mounting & made a sketch,
KajU fiiav coy/oa0tav. 2 A majestic abundance of tym-
panum-torturing turkeys are now met with on all the
roads, coming into Corfu to be eaten. These birds
are of a highly irascible disposition, and I never
knew before 2 days ago, that they objected to being
whistled to. But Col. Campbell informed me of the
fact, and proved it to me, since when it is one of my
peculiar happinesses to whistle to all the Turkeys I
meet or see, they get into such a damnable rage I can

1 Theodore Bunsen, son of Baron and Baroness de Bunsen.
* He wrought a painting.

Letters of Edward Lear

hardly stand for laughing. After all, suppose a swell
party in London, say at Cambridge House, if any one
person began to whistle furiously at all the rest,
wouldn't they get into a rage I should like to know ?

On the first of the year I was wishing you and
others a happy (new) one and many such, when lo! your
letter from Holyhead of the 22nd came, to my great
pleasure. I am so glad you will have been able to
pass your Christmas at Redhouse. Stay, let me look
over the epistle, & reply a ? ra biroia x want comments.
It is (pronounced strongly izz) a satisfaction to talk
with you, & both doing so & receiving your letters
does me a great deal of good.

In re Bunsen the telegraphic small Bunsen here,
talks as I never nevernever heard anyone talk :
he makes you long to scream.

I wish I had studded with you at Dresden. 2 I quite
feel how that life and your present one seem like
that of two persons, from having seen you in Ireland
I now can understand all your life pretty well : the
more analysis one brings to what one is interested
in, the more one not only understands but gains by
the process, secondo ame.

'O Moi|0te, 6 TTU^UC K>) KaAoe.3

Reflections on daily life, etc. : what you say to me
is exactly true, but infernally difficult to follow out,
i.e. "That the freedom of the inner man consists in

1 Upon whatever matter.

2 Fortescue lived in Dresden for four months of the winter
of 1846 to learn German.

3 O Morier, big and beautiful.

Corfii

obedience." Doubtless whenever the time comes
that a man so willingly practises obedience as to
find no annoyance from the process, he does so with
a good will, & therefore a choice, & that is freedom.
For my own part at present I find stuffing every

a? ^
moment with work the sole panace against more

um?

thought than is good for one. I only wish there
were 28 hours in every day.

I do not, sir, read the Testament now much
leastways in Greek : though I could do so with
pleasure. But would you believe it, I have read the
death of Socrates & Plato. I was so struck by
3>aiov that I rose at night and worked till I made
out the last part of it entirely. How is it that the
thoughts of this wonderful man are kept darkly away
from the youths of the age? (except they go to the
universities, & then only as matters of language or
scarcely more) because Socrates was a "Pagan"?
I shall have more to say, & think about, concerning
Socrates, whose opinion on death I now read for
the first time, & there is no harm in wishing that
we two may some day read Plato together ; we both
have much similar tendency to an analytical state of
mind I think. Intanto, my old StSomcaXoe l persists in
keeping me in nXourajoxoc, & also in Lucian's dialogues,
& won't hear of Plato. The former, Plutarch, I hate
Lucian delights me as so very absurd and new.

1 Master.
75

Letters of Edward Lear

Dining at the Palace 3 days ago, I sat next to
Sir J. after dinner & he talked to me a good deal.
(His way of talking of you moreover is agreable to
me.) His appreciation of Greek character is all the
more near the right one, inasmuch as he is longer
here : but as you say in your last, the firm hand is
wanted here, & I add is wanting.

I stop my letter to add what I cannot yet quite
realize, but what grieves me most extremely.
Lushington writes in a note that Mrs. Cortazzi has
just died at Paris. We heard she was ill but not
dangerously.

Poor Helena, & Madeline ! what will become of
those poor girls ?

4th. I can't add much more to this, my dear
boy. In so small a place as this one is more
dependent than I had fancied on the few one sees
and at all cares for. The absence of the Cortazzi was
a blank in itself, but now to know, that poor Mrs. C.
died before she saw her English friends ! (She was a
Lancashire Hornby, and first cousin of William
Hornby who married Sir Philip's daughter,) and
without seeing her only son, is sad enough. Besides
that, I became interested enough about Helena to
feel for her extremely. As yet we know no par-
ticulars.

Here are 10 woodcox, what can I do with them
all?

I must leave off, I feel like 5 nutmeg-graters full of
baked eggshells so dry & cold & miserable.

Corfa

CORFU, loth. January, 1858.

I shall begin a letter & let it burn up gradivally
like the gun-powder which they throw on the fire. I
have been working tooth & nail at Lord Clermont's
Athos, & am succeeding in making it the best I have
done of that 'oly mounting. In the foregroung there
is a Nilex tree, which I take no end of pains about,
and the little woody dell will I think be a pet bit of
the picture with Lord C. It is doubtless, though still
to have much added, a better picture than the one I
did at Redhouse, but I can't help that. The other 2,
Mrs. Empson's Athos and Corfu, are also less good,
which I am sorry for, but I can't help either, for
naturally every successive piece of work should be
better than its foregoer.

And I am doing the bilious memories of StvoQw
concerning Socrates, by which I am immensely
interested. Life goes on here very dummily, : I
feel however, the want of forcing myself to under-
take some work of a tougher, or more difficult
gnashmyteethupon nature. At the Palace I have
been once or twice to dinner ; for to the Evening
Balls I can't & won't go. Lady Y. is always cer-
tainly very kind in inviting one, a brute. Lady
Headfort comes out each time in new & astound-
ing jewels. We get on very well, having endless
topics of mutuality-talk, from Rosstrevor & Lady
Drogheda, to "Virginia Pattle," or Afghanistan.
They "the court" (I suppose Sir John also) are
all off to Athens in a fortnight or so. Lady Y.

Letters of Edward Lear

characteristically observing " I have always wanted
to see the Ball room at the Palace, and there are
to be some fine fetes." My ! won't Queen Amelia
be down on them ! for Sir John's profundities are
pretty well known there.

I am reminded that I told you quite wrongly some-
thing of the state of feeling here as developed in
representation, nearly all the members of this Island
are anti-English, the contrary is the case with Cepha-
lonia. Yet in the main perhaps I was right, as to
the greater general dislike to us in the latter place.
Neither was I correct about the Italian or Roman
Catholic element : The Greek screw has been
allowed to be put on so much more strongly, with
each successive Govt., that every other consideration
is giving way to a settled desire to join Greece, &
get rid of English.

After these ozbervations, which are more temperate
and less triumphiliginous, than those I last wrote, I
shall proceed to state that Shakespear is come, by
which assertion I do not mean the author of "As
you like it," " Hamlet," or other popular drammers,
but the Major of that name of the Royal Artillery,
who used to live over me, & whose wife is one of
the very nicest, even if not the nicest woman here.
They are gone to live in the Citadel, next door to
the General. The General objects to the odour of
cooking generally & of onions particularly. Lady
Buller has not expressed any opinion on the subject
so far as is publicly known : the matter rests in

Corfti

a state of oblique & tenacious obscurity for the
present.

Last night I, the Shakespear's, & Wyndham, dined
with the honourable Edward & Arabella Gage, 1 very
good people. We of this Terrace & this part of the
town chaff the Shakespears, who now live so far off,
and we ask them to "set us down" on their way to
" Wimbledon." It is but right you should know the
important life concerns of the Island, and therefore I
shall not hesitate to insert the following facts before
I conclude this morning's scribble. Madam Vitalis,
the Greek consul's wife has purchased a large red
maccaw. Mrs. Macfarlane's female domestic has
fallen down stairs, by which precipitate act Mrs. M's
baby has been killed. Sir Gorgeous Figginson
Blowing has had an attack of fever. Colonel
Campbell (first cousin of Sir J. Simeon,) dined
with Mr. Lear the Artist on Thursday. On Friday
that accomplished person entertained Mr. Bunsen &
Mr. Justice Lushington. Capt. R. has purchased a
Cornopeon, & practises on it, (Mrs. G. invariably
calls it a cornicopean.) but it is not heard generally,
on account of the superior row made by Mrs. Vitalis'
maccaw, Capt. P's howling dogs, & about 400 turkeys
who live at ease about the terrace and adopt a remark-
able gobble at certain periods. Lady H[eadfort] has
astonished the multitude by a pink satin dress stuffed
with pearls. Bye the bye I heard rather a good thing

1 Brother of Viscount Gage and a Colonel in the Royal Horse
Artillery. Married to a cousin, Miss Arabella Gage.

Letters of Edward Lear

yesterday, Lady H. (with an aide de camp,) has been
"doing" the sights of Corfu, & among others the
churches. At the Greek Cathedral a beggar came
and importuned the glittering Marchioness, who at
the moment was indulging in the natural & pleasant
act of sucking an orange. Lady H. after a time
paused & said or implied "silver & gold have I
none," but such as she had, (being the half sucked
orange,) she politely gave the beggar-woman, who
(oranges being any number for a half-penny,) threw
the fruit in her Ladyship's face, and rushed frantically
out of the desecrated edifice.

Jany. \%th. 1858. Hooray! Here's a letter from
you dated Jany. 6th. What a good boy it is! I
shall post this to-morrow therefore. The day is so
cold that I can hardly hold my pen, & feel that all
or more than all the population of Corfu will expire,
or become icicles. No such cold was ever known
here, a keen east wind, the first I have ever felt in
the Island. Snow on Salvador : and a great deal
of sad illness among the natives. Of course the
Anglo-saxons rather like the freezing than no, I
don't, & yet am well because the air is so pure I
suppose. Mr. George Cockles, my Suliote, refuses
to write his copy. noToc finiropii va yptyy, Ktpie, etc
rowro TO Kpvov. 1 But until yesterday we have had
wonderfully lovely weather & never yet any rain
to speak of, sun nearly ever. To-day, however, all
is gray and ugly. With your letter came a letter

1 How did you travel or paint in this cold weather ?
80

Corfii

from sister Ann, who was 67 yesterday, I am sorry
to say.

While I think of it here are two anecdotes, this
time from the Citadel. Colonel Campbell has a
celebrated horse, a stallion, called " Billy." I hate
the sight of him myself, in as much as he bites and
kicks whoever he can. The other day being loose,
and seeing a helpless horse in a cart, he pounced on
him and began to oppress him horribly, the two
making any amount of row. This happened oppo-
site Lady Buller's window, whereon the lady being
of a tender-heart and a decided manner, opened the
window & called out, Sentinel ! (Sentinel shouldered
& presented arms) " Shoot the horse directly,"
(Sentinel looks horribly bewildered but does nothing)
" Why don't you shoot it " ! (S) " Lord Madam ! its
Billy!" Lady B. "What's Billy? what do I care
for Billy? shoot it I say." (Billy all the time
tearing & biting the prostrate victim horse.) Sen-
tinel " Can't nohow madam my lady, cause its the
Colonel's Billy." Here the General Sir J. came up
& tranquillized the agitated nerves, of lady, sentinel,
& both horses.

Another anecdote is that Sir Henry Holland l
being here, & dining at the General's : Lady B.
said promiscuously, " Sir Henry in all your travels
were you ever in Albania?" Can't you fancy Sir

1 Physician to William IV., Queen Victoria, and Prince
Albert. Author of " Travels in the Ionian Islands, Albania,
Thessaly, Macedonia," 1815.

81 G

Letters of Edward Lear

Henry's smile & quiet: "Why, Lady Duller, I
wrote a book on Albania, because I happened to be
there as Physician to AH Pasha in 1812 & 1813."

I think there are no more anecdotes, but, (as
Ollendorf may say) there is much ice & innumerable
woodcox. They say old Nassau Senior I is coming
to Athens, also General Fox 2 is reported to be at
hand. All last week my At&uvaAoc has not been to
me his only child being about, I fear, to die : he has
lost 4 before, poor man. So I shall poke on alone
in Plato & E&voQwvS & wish you were here to help
me. To-day all the Palace folk were to come, but
Lady Y. is unwell, & could not. I dine there
to-night, if I don't die of the cold first. Patrick
Talbot is here, whom I like. As yet I do not
hear anything certain about Jaffa & the rotten
Arribs : but I shall do so before long. We,
intanto, abound in turkeys this year, the whole
country is black with them, and a sound of gobbling
pervades the Corcyrean air.

My friend Miss Dennett must have had a sad shock
by Lord Spencer's sudden death.4 Everyone should

1 Author of u Journals Kept in France and Italy from 1848 to
1852," "Conversations with M. Thiers, Guizot, and other Distin-
guished Persons during the Second Empire," &c., &c.

2 A natural son of the third Lord Holland. Had the finest
private collection of Greek coins in the world, purchased by the
Royal Museum at Berlin, 1873. 3 Xenophon.

* The fourth Earl. Fought at Navarino, 1827 ; afterwards
Vice-Admiral on the reserve list. Steward of Her Majesty's
Household, 1854-57, & c -> & c -

Corfu

know that so high was his esteem for Miss D. (who
brought up his two daughters, and was much with
Lady S. at last) that he settled an income of ^200
per annum on her for life. Let me look over your
letter & see if anything wants replying to. I was
enormously delighted with it, because being morbid,
I fancied I might have written too violently in my
last but one. (I remember calling Mr. Labouchere
a muff a dummy &c.,) but one gets angry sometimes.
The fortifications go on, and the blasted bartizan
before my windows will improve the landscape by
being blown up. You are very kind to have
thought & written to Lady W. as you did about
me. I assure you, your active and living sympathy
is of value to me here not to be expressed. Dear
good Mr. Clark came here two days ago, seeing I
have not been at church, but he never said a word
about it. He is really a good man spite of the
Dogmas & Catechisms. Yesterday I went like a
good boy and he preached a sermon from "be not
slothful in business " etc. hardly to be surpassed.
He might be split into fifteen Bishops.

I can't write any more now, but will try when I
come home from the Palace, to finish this. Mean-
while, I must go & try & birculate my clood, by a
rard hun on the righ hoad.

upee hem : I've just come from the Palace, where
the dinner was agreeable enough. I sat next Lady
Young, & Miss Eisenbach, the Austrian Consul's
daughter, and opposite poor Lady Emily Kozziris :

Letters of Edward Lear

certainly her husband is a stunner of a misery-bore.
Then there were Col. and the pretty Mrs. Herbert,
Miss Erskine, Miss Murray, the live Markis and
March 83 , old Eisenbach, Capts. Furville, & Churchill
A.D.C's. Nautical Capt. Bromley, 1 Dr. Evans, &
the landscape painter. Certes ! Lady Y. is a singular
woman, no end of talents of a sort, but rayther "pro-
nonce'e." Her singing is sometimes wonderfully
good. Old Lord Headfort persisted in supposing
Miss Eisenbach my daughter why, I can't conceive :
I wish she were : but I'm glad she ain't my wife.

So I came moam & rote this. Alack my dear Sir
John : you lack some things. They are going to
England this year I find.

I meant to have written a lot about the priests &
signori, and the good peasantry, & the orange-trees,
and sea-gulls, and geraniums, & the Ionian Ball, &
Jerusalem Artichokes, & Colonel Paterson, & old
Dandolo's palm-tree, & my spectacles and the East-
wind, & Zambelli's nasty little dogs, 2 & fishermen, &
Scarpe's cats, & whatnot, but I am too sleepy.

CORFU. Feb. i. 1858.

I shall send a little letter to-day, as the time draws
nearer for going eastward, so that if possible I may
get still one line from you before I start.

I cannot tell you much of anything at present, &

1 Afterwards Sir Richard Madox-Bromley, at this time
Accountant-General of the Navy.

- Mr. Lear detested and feared dogs and they seemed to
dislike him.

Corfu

besides that I am full of little fussy letters & bother-
ing's, I am so cold, as to be half-dead. No such

o '

winter has ever been known here, & last night
Lushington who dined here was glad, as was I, to
wrap ourselves in Railway rugs as we sat on each
side of the fire.

While I write the post comes, & one letter contains
a bit I will transcribe, as I know it will please you as

it does me. " When Lady Waldegrave came to ,

I met her in a spirit of prejudice & ignorance, but I
recovered from that while she staid & made herself
known. She certainly is one of the most remark-
able characters of the day, which few give her credit
for being, at least none who know her superficially."

Well I wish I were at Redhouse and you reading
me the diary in the small Jam studio : or walking up
& down the long walk with or without Chi, the per-
spective struggling milkly enthusiastic calves afar off
the Million 1 remotely seen in the far background. I
shall write to you from Jerusalem. Goodbye my dear
4oscue. Remember if I die you are to choose a book
from my books : B. Husey-Hunt, & W. Holman
Hunt are my executors." 2

1 Mrs. Ruxton's companion, so called because she was " one
in a million."

2 The well-known artist and another intimate friend of Lear's.
Amusing remembrances of his first meeting with Lear are told in
Mr. Holman Hunt's Memoires.

Letters of Edward Lear

Fortescue to Lear.

RED HOUSE,

Thursday night, 4 Feby. '58

... I shall get Beaumont's book and " insense "
my Lady about Masada. She has been surrounded
by French Royalties and English Dookes etc. etc.
What a contrast to my life here ! The brilliant
crowd of her friends many of them very intimate
is terrifying. I feel sometimes as if I should not
be able to reach her through the throng or to see
her quietly. But I must hope it will not prove
so. ..." So runs the round of life ! "

Lear to Fortescue.

13 Feb. 1858

Slowly goes on the Indian horror, (beg pardon
the "mutiny") what is John Hamilton about? It
does not quite seem to me that "all will be quite
settled in a month or two," as the Times said a
long while back. I hope I shall hear from you before
I go, but I hardly think I can get any letter if you
have not yet written.

Regarding mylady, courage and quiet : if you do
not light on bright times it seems strange : some
day or other. Let me know always how you go on.

Now mind, write if you can, I will write once
more before I go. Confound the Cats !

Febry. 27, 1858.

Your letter of the iQth. has just come, & is one
of the nicest of the many you have written since I

Corfa

left England. I shall sit down and answer it at
once, & this time I won't be hirritated if I can help
it. I vex myself often after I send off hastily
written letters. However, you are so very just as
well as kind in weighing my ways and doings, that
I am not afraid of having vexed you much. In this
infernal hole of a place, so little novelty occurs that
some small worry constantly friddles ones temper.
You aint " red tape " and you can't help the state
of things : whereby I recant my osbervations.

I am sorry you were so beastly unwell, not but
that a good routing may do good, and still more
sorry about Mrs. Urquhart's child. 1

I shall write to you from Jerusalem, & to Lady
W. as soon as I have returned from Masada : It
was Miss Dennett who wrote that : 2 I knew you
would like it you do not say you have seen her,
Lady W. since your return. Tell her I shall take
great pains about her views, if she asks about my
going. I think her Sunset must be from Scopus.
(Bye the bye, I have been reading a good deal,
my old teacher being quite knocked up, so that I
have had but 2 months of Greek lessons out of the
last 12. Finlay's 5 volumes of Greece are admirable.
Try to get Gambinis pamphlet on the Jews. I have

1 In this letter of the I9th, Fortescue says : " While in bed
received a summons from my sister to go down to her instantly,
she having lost her little boy."

2 The passage with reference to Lady Waldegrave in the
previous letter,

Letters of Edward Lear

just read Paul Ferrol a very nasty odious book.
Lady Duller lent it to me. She is a very nice
woman, I dined there two days ago for the first
time, and was really pleased. Everyone seems to
like her. As for Lady Y. she has been a flouncing
off to Egina with the K[ing] of G[reece] & the
whole Palace party are not yet returned.

I shall long to hear from you in the Holy Land.
Clowes I has written but does not come : & so I go
alone, & perhaps it is better. There are but few I
could travel with & yet keep my own thread of
thoughts unwispy & unentangled. The journey to
Palestine will give one really a great deal to think
of in many ways. Sir J. Reid says I must do a
large Jerusalem and get Sir Moses M. or Rothschild
to buy it. Now I finish 3 Al 'iabets for children
and so get pretty wearied at end of the week. O !
for a quiet passage ! And again ditto from Alexda.
to Jaffa ! I shall leave off now, & wind up.

The following letter refers to the overthrow
of Lord Palmerston's Ministry in February,
1858. The Bill to amend the Law of Con-
spiracy, brought in by the Prime Minister
in consequence of Orsini's attempt to
assassinate the Emperor of the French, was
the cause of the Government's defeat. Lord

1 F. Clowes was a godson of Lear's, I think. He was some
relation of the Lancashire Hornbys and in the 8th Hussars,

Corfti

Stanley became Colonial Secretary, but a
little later was appointed Secretary of State
for India, when Sir E. Bulwer Lytton took
his place.

For fescue to Lear.

ST. JAMES' PLACE,

Sunday, February 28 1858

What events have happened since I wrote last !
Here I am out of office no more " red tape " for
the present. I wound up at the C.O. on Friday
bid goodbye to Merivale and Co. and had a great
many flattering and pleasant things said to me.
Merivale was just going to telegraph the news to
Malta and Corfu so that you no doubt know that
Lord Stanley is Secretary of State for the Colonies,
after having held out for some days against taking
office in a Government with which he can feel very
little agreement. He is in a false position privately
and publickly.

I do not take these political events to heart, but
I am sorry for what has happened. . . . These people
will very probably not last long, but they may survive
upon the dissensions of their opponents If those were
to be made up particularly the matter of Palmerston
and Russell, they would go at once or at all events
would dissolve and then go. . . . Palmerston has
greatly mismanaged the French affair. I believe he
was spoilt by success, and had become overbearing
and rash. At the same time, substantially I think

Letters of Edward Lear

he's right, in endeavouring to strengthen the law of
Conspiracy to Murder, in order to give some pro-
tection to our ally the Emperor or at least to show
that we would not have the " right of asylum " so
abused, if we could help it, while maintaining the
right for all peaceful refugees. Lord Derby, D' Israeli
etc. had espoused the same opinion in the strongest
way, and I think their joining with Milner Gibson to
defeat the Government was a most inconsistent and
dishonest party move, but they were unable to "resist
the temptation." . . .

I dined at Lansdowne House last night a great
dinner ... I got next Lady W. who dined there
in wonderful beauty and force. Then went to a small
party at poor G. Palmerston's he looking low.

Lear to Fortescue.
On Pistol shooting, Liars, and other subjects,

CORFU, March 9. 1858.

It is particularly kind of you to have written this
last (date Sunday 28th ) which I got yesterday.
All your letters are so like yourself so even &
clear & regular. I have been thinking a great deal
about you since this break up, which I believe would
have come somehow or other, French matter or not.
That was the tree or steeple which drew down the
lightening storm, but the storm was all ready to burst
somewhere, for sometime past. I had heard enough

Corfti

of Lord P [almerston] latterly, to expect it : and his
own altered public & private manner, the gross error
of Lord Clanricarde's readmission and other things,
were but forerunners of a crash ; but I wholly agree
with you in every word you write. The combination
is odious, & with all respect to my friend & patron, he
is not the man to be a leader of England for any long
period. I cannot conceive how he can like to be in
power on such terms. For Lord Stanley I am vexed,
for as you say he cannot really unite with those from
whom he differs so much. Pakington * I suppose
accepted. What sort of a man is Lord Carnarvon ?
I believe Lord John will be in tho' perhaps not
Premier, before 6 months are out.

In the mean time don't you drop habits of study &
business, but keep them up all the more. Make your-
self master of anything Colonial. The compliments
and pleasant things said are but what was your due, not
only for your strict attention to routine of business,
but for your earnest wish to do what was right,
tho' you had not much power in your hands. Give
my love to the late Mr. Labouchere, & say he's
a miserable muff. Also to Mr. Merivale & say he is
either dishonest or stupid. Thank God you so far
as you have gone in public life are as white as a
Jerusalem artichoke, and I believe you will always
keep so. Tell both of them they are no better than
they should be !

The Palace party are come back, they had horrid
1 He became First Lord of the Admiralty.

Letters of Edward Lear

weather & an Earthquake. Corinth is totally ruined,
not one single house habitable. People all fled.
Vialimachi down flat on the ground. These earth-
quakes are dreadful. Boyle, who has just come
back from Naples, fills us with horrors! Amalfi,
Sorrento and such lists of old lovely places, all gone !
down on the earth, and every inhabitant killed or
maimed.

O ! here is a bit of queerness in my life. Brought
up by women & badly besides & ill always, I never
had any chance of manly improvement & exercise,
etc. and never touched firearms in all my days But

you can't do work at the Dead Sea without them. So
Lushington, who is always vy kind and good makes
me take a 5-barelled revolver, & I have been prac-
tising shooting at a mark (I can hardly write for
laughing), & have learned all the occult nature of

Corfti

pistols. Don't grin. My progress is slow but always
(I trust) somewhat. At 103 I may marry possibly.
Goodbye dear 4oscue.

Yrs. affectionately,

EDWARD LEAR.

I've left you all Leeke's Greece, in case of my being
devoured by Arabs or fever.

CHAPTER IV
April to November, 1858

PALESTINE, CORFtJ, AND ENGLAND

ON the 1 3th of March, 1858, Lear set out
for his long-projected visit to Jerusalem,
accompanied by his servant, George Kokali.
Arriving there on the 27th, he writes :

Lear to Fortescue.

JERUSALEM, April ist. 1858.

DEAR 4OSCUE, During my stay here this the
5th., day, every moment has been occupied, or rather
fussed away : writing a long letter to my sister, &
a short line to Lushington, walking all about the
neighbouring hills, to understand its most pictural
points, endless interviews with interminable Drago-
men, besides the hourly distraction of a public Hotel
chok full of people, & the overcrowded state of the
streets, all this will give you some idea of the land-
scape painters state of body & mind.

Leaving Corfu on the i3th. or rather i4th. of

Palestine, Corfu, and England

March, a decent voyage brought me to Alexandria
on the 1 7th, too late for the French Jaffa steamer
by one day. So I passed 5 days in a trip to Cairo,
which I greatly wish you could see some day, &
renewing delightful impressions of the Pyramids,
Caliph's tombs, Heliopolis, &c., &c. Returning to
Alexandria on the 23rd, I sailed on the 25th. in the
Austrian Jaffa steamer, in which the crowds of clean &
dirty, high & low pilgrims was a wonder, and you may
suppose its combinations to some extent, when I tell
you that 20 different languages were spoken on
board. Most happily the voyage was fine, or I can't
tell you what we must have suffered.

At Jaffa we arrived on the 26th. at noon, but
owing to the immense crowd of Eastern pilgrims, the
landing & getting under way were most difficult
matters, & had it not been for Arthur Stanley's
Dragoman, I do not know how I could have got on.
By 3, p.m. we were off, loaded & mounted for
Ramleh, where we slept, or rather stopped that night.
The way thither is through one almighty green lovely
corn-field, perfectly delicious at every time of day, and
not at all unlike many parts of the Roman Campagna ;
though more resembling the southern plains of Sicily,
particularly in the long unbroken line of blue-lilac
hills, poetically the " frowning mountains of Judah,"
though I could not see any justice in the term so
applied to them. From Ramleh the same cheery
plain of corn extends to the foot of these hills, & you
then ascend through shrubby & stony & olive planted

Letters of Edward Lear

passes, up & down, (though always upper not downer)
till about the 8th hour after leaving the aforesaid
Ramleh, you find yourself toiling up a steep & bare
rocky hill-side, at the top of which an undulating
level of rather wearisome duration brings you in sight
of the western walls of the Holy City.

The Holy City itself is just now in a most odious
state of suffocation & crowding, this one week uniting
all sorts of creeds & people in a disagreeable hodge-
podge of curiosity & piety. Lucky it was for me to
get even the last single room & one for my servant,
and that day I was content to give up struggling
through the fearfully thronged hustle-streets, & after
a tabledhote dinner was glad to be thankful & sleep
at Jerusalem, which I had so long wished to see. On
Sunday 28th, service in our church was a real pleasure
well arranged, simple & good in all respects, and the
more to find the preacher an old friend, son of Ralph
Barnes the Bp. of Exeter's Secy. Afterwards my
delight in going, (on Palm Sunday too,) to the Mount
of Olives you can imagine. But the immense beauty
of the environs of Jerusalem you cannot nor could I
before I saw it. Independently of the grandeur of the
position of this wonderful place, & the claim every
part of its walls & buildings, has on the Xtian as well
as the observer of general history & antiquity, most of
the vallies of Johosaphat & Himmon abound in
beautiful quiet scenes, wholly unexpected by me as
part & parcel of Judean Landscape : Then the
ancient tombs cut in the rock, the innumerable flat

Palestine, Corfu, and England

ones, the scattered olives, (not fine as at Corfu but
pollardy,) the constantly varying beauty of the Mount
of Olives, the realities of Siloam, Zion &c. and the
very ancient traditional sites of Gethsemane &c &c
&c., keep you constantly alive to the fresh interest
that awaits you at every step. I had not the slightest
idea of the amount of wonder & admiration the walks
hereabout must call up, in all thinking visitors.

Meanwhile, I am off now to Bethlehem & Hebron
in a few hours : too glad to get to some quiet from
this noisy place. Thence I go by the Dead Sea to
Sebbeh, (Masada) Engedi, Mar Saba, & Jericho, &
possibly beyond the Jordan, returning here for a
fortnight or 3 weeks. 1

Lear to Lady Waldegrave.

DAMASCUS, 27* h May. 1858.

I had thought of writing to you long ago, to tell
you what I had done by way of trying to fulfil the
commissions you kindly gave me ; but the difficulties
of sending anything like a letter " while I am on the
road " in these countries, are not to be told. At least
they are great to me, who am always unable to write
by candle-light; and the early morning is snatched
for moving forward, while mid-day heat & weariness
put a veto on all labour, but that of catching & flap-
ping away flies. And when in Hotels, (in the very

1 A scarcity of letters at this period, will be explained by the
following paragraph : " I have told Ann [his sister] to send you
my letters, & you will post them to the address you will obtain."

97 H

Letters of Edward Lear

few spots where such houses exist) there are so many
things to look after and look at, & so much re-
arrangement for the next journey, that the time for a
real sitting down for letter writing never seems to

. '"*<.

come. To-day the Syrian Haj takes its departure
for Mecca, and as there is no chance of drawing
anywhere out of doors, along of the excitement of the
pious Moslem mind, which finds a safety valve in
throwing stones at Nazrani, I shall remain here and
fill a sheet, if not two, which may reach you to amuse
an hour or two of your leisure some fortnight

hence.

My stay in Jerusalem or
rather opposite the City, for
I pitched my tents on the
Mount of Olives when I had
ascertained the point I thought you would like best for
your picture, was the most complete portion of my
tour : i.e. I was able to attend thoroughly, and to the
best of my ability to what I was doing, in peace &

Palestine, Corfii, and England

quiet : whereas much of the rest of my Palestine
journey has been toiled through under far other
circumstances.

After describing at great length the reasons
which led him to select a north-east view of

"~~ ""~" " '"-'

* "~

the city for Lady Waldegrave's picture, illus-
trated by various little sketches reproduced
here, he continues :

And now what shall I say on the subject of the
companion painting? One of the most remarkable as
well as of the most picturesque studies, I have

obtained, is of Sebbeh, or Masada, the history of
which you will find in ? Translation of Josephus.
This was one of the places I so much wished to visit
& one which I am so pleased at having drawings of.
It is like this somewhat, only I cannot give here what
only detail & colour can produce. The great depth

Letters of Edward Lear

of the ravine below. A. is the Dead Sea : B. is the
line of Moab mountains. This scene, as that of the
last Jewish struggle for freedom against Rome, would
I think be a very excellent subject in its way, but

MASADA.

in case you should not like this there is Hebron,
which is very particularly a Hewbrew antiquity, & is
besides sufficiently picturesque to form a good picture :
though why Abraham choose to live there I cannot
think : I found it abominably cold & wet, & besides,
they threw stones at me whenever I drew, so that
I wished the whole population in Abraham's bosom or
elsewhere 20 times a day.

Another subject which is astonishingly grand is Petra.
(Not that I can ever see the sketch without feeling
my ears tingle at the memory of the filthy Arab
savages.) Petra was the capital of the Nabathcean

100

Palestine, Corfu, and England

(or Idumcean) Kings, who reigned in Jerusalem as
Herods, & it was one of them who built Masada.
The magnificence of Petra is not to be told, I mean
the magnificence of combined ruin, splendour of

sepulchral architecture and excavated temples, united
to the most romantic mountain or rock scenery & the
most beautiful vegetation.

At present the heat is getting too great to allow
of my drawing much, & also the country is in such a
state that many places can only be visited at the
risk of robbery &c., even if the traveller goes over

the ground as rapidly as possibly. So travelling,
he may escape outrage, but with me, that mode of
progress is useless : I must stop often and for
a considerable time, so that it is not easy to escape

101

Letters of Edward Lear

those odious Arabs. The whole plain of Eisdrcelon
for instance swarms with them, & they attack all
passengers. Of known names Lord Dunglas, 1 Col.
Cust, Sir J. Fergusson 2 & of unknown names,
numbers have been stopped : and lately many
Americans have been robbed & some murdered,
which in one sense is a very good thing, since I do
not understand that the American Govt., think
proper to uphold the fiction of Turkish renovation,
& instead of being compelled to pooh-pooh the
entirely dislocated state of all order in Palestine &
Syria, they will it is to be hoped get riled and act
accordingly. If it were not shocking, the fate of
one large American party near Nazareth is beyond
belief absurd : the Arabs actually went off with
all but one large blanket, of which Mr. & Mrs.
T. made two garments & therein rode to the town.
Some revenge was probably mixed up in the case,
on the part of some Arab it is said they had
threatened ; for they took every book & drawing,
& paper, & even Mrs. T.'s wig & spectacles. Of
Dr. Beattie's-3 party 10 days ago, the ill-fortune was
as great or even greater : they were setting out
for America, but these animals took all their treasures,
not only clothes, but books, collections of plants &c.,

1 Eldest son of the Earl of Home.

2 At this time Governor of Malta.

3 Foreign Secretary to the British Archaeological Society.
He had been Physician and Private Secretary to the Duke of
Clarence.

1 02

Palestine, Corfu, and England

things of no use to them, but I believe taken as
diversions for their nasty little beastly black
children.

Of my own mishaps at Petra you perhaps have
heard ; how about 200 of them came down on me,
and every-thing which could be divided they took.
My watch they returned to me, but all money,
handkerchiefs, knives, &c., &c., were confiscated.
Since then my 2 muleteers, whom I sent by land
from Jaffa to Beirut were robbed of their little all
by the way, & one might add others. But, cui bono !
English people must submit to these things, because
we have no influence in Syria or Palestine, nor in the
East generally. I should like to hear of a French
party being stopped or murdered ! ! The Arabs
(& Turks) know too well that neither French nor
Austrians can be touched with impunity.

The time is evidently near at hand when all the
country will be a field of dispute for Latin & Greek
factions once more, and the most miserable Jerusalem
once again the bone of contention. If on the one
hand the Latin Patriarch is building a great Palace
& Convent near Bethlehem, and the Austrians are
raising a splendid " Hospital " (a sort of Knight
Templars affair,) in Jerusalem itself, to be opened
by Pius IX it is said, on the other hand the Russian
clergy have constantly increasing influence among
the natives, & even just now a particular delegate
has come to the " Holy City " with important powers
from Alexander. In the meantime, the " Protestants "

103

Letters of Edward Lear

stand alone as a mark for Hebrew, & Heathen,
Musulman, Latin, Greek, & Armenian, to be pointed
out by all & each as the living Pharisees of the day,
professing a better & simpler form of Christ's religion
than their fellow Xtians, yet scandalizing the whole
community by their monstrous quarrels ; their Consuls
& Bishops regarding each other with hatred, & each
acting to each with open contempt & malignity, while
every portion of their resident fellow religionists take
one or the other side of the faction. And this forsooth
at a place for example for Turks & Jews ; this at the
very place where He whom they believe the founder
of their faith, died ! By Heaven ! if I wished to
prevent a Turk, Hebrew, or Heathen, from turning
Christian I would send him straight to Jerusalem ! I
vow I could have turned Jew myself, as one American
has actually lately done. At least the Jews do not
lie ; they act according to their belief : and among
themselves they are less full of hatred & malice
(perhaps, for bye the bye, they excommunicated
Sir M. Montefiore in 3 synagogues because they
said he tried to introduce Xtian modes of life,) than
the Xtian community. But these latter, arrogating
to themselves as they do all superiority in this & the
next life, trample the most sacred doctrines of Christ
below their feet daily : "I say unto you love one
another" are words which Exeter Hall, or Dr.
Phillpotts, 1 Calvinist, or Puseyite, Monophysite

1 The famous Bishop of Exeter, who spent about ^25,000 in
litigation. In 1847 he refused to institute the Rev. G. C. Gorham

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Palestine, Corfu, and England

Armenian & Copt, or Trinitarian Greek, & Latin
receive with shouts of ridicule & blasphemous derision.
" Almost thou persuadest me not to be a Xtian " is
the inner feeling of the man who goes to the " Holy
City " unbiassed towards any " religious " faction :
& it is at least my own deliberate opinion that while
" the Christ that is to be," is so far, far removed
from the Xtian priesthood and Xtians in a body as
it is in South Palestine, while, in a word Jerusalem is
what it is by & through Xtians dogmas & theology,
so long must the religion of Christ be, and most
justly, the object of deep hatred & disgust to the
Moslem, of detestation & derision to the Jew. From
all this mass of squabblepoison let me except the
Americans : these alone, particularly in Northern
Syria seem to think that Christ's doctrines are worth
keeping thought of : as far as I can perceive, they are
as much respected for their useful practical lives, as for
their uniform peaceful & united disposition of
brotherly love one towards another.

One word about the Jews : the idea of converting
them to Xtianity at Jerusalem is to the sober observer
fully as absurd as that you should institute a society to
convert all the cabbages & strawberries in Covent
garden into pigeon-pies & Turkey carpets. I mean
that the whole thing is a frantic delusion. Are the

to the living of Brampford Speke. Gorham appealed to the
Privy Council and was instituted in 1850. A fierce controversy
arose, in the course of which Dr. Phillpotts excommunicated
the Archbishop of Canterbury.

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Letters of Edward Lear

Jews fools that they should take up with a religion
professing to be one of love & yet bringing forth
bitter hatred & persecution ? Have the Jews shown
any particular sign of forgetting their country & their
ancestral usages, that you should fancy it easier for
them to give up their usages in the very centre of that
country they have been so long attached to, & for
the memory of which they have borne such and so
much misery? Once again the theory of Jew-con-
version is utter boshblobberbosh nothing more nor
less.

With all this, and in spite of all this, there is enough
in Jerusalem to set a man thinking for life, & I am
deeply glad I have been there. O my nose ! O my
eyes ! O my feet! How you all suffered in that
vile place ! for let me tell you, physically Jerusalem
is the foulest and odiousest place on earth. A bitter
doleful soul-ague comes over you in its streets.
And your memories of its interior are but horrid
dreams of squalor & filth, clamour & uneasiness,
hatred & malice & all uncharitableness. But the
outside is full of melancholy glory, exquisite beauty
& a world of past history of all ages : every point
forcing you to think on a vastly dim receding past,
or a time of Roman war & splendour, (for ^Elia
Capitolium was a fine city) or a smash of Moslem
& Crusader years, with long long dull winter of
deep decay through centuries of misrule. The Arab
& his sheep are alone the wanderers on the pleasant
vallies and breezy hills round Zion : the file of slow

106

Palestine, Corfii, and England

camels all that brings to mind the commerce of Tyre
& other bygone merchandize.

Every path leads you to fresh thought : this takes
you to Bethany, lovely now as it ever must have
been : quiet, still little nook of valley scenery. There
is Rephaim & you see the Philistines crowding over
the green plain Down that ravine you go to Jericho :
from that point you see the Jordan and Gilead.
There is Anatoth, & beyond all, the track of Senna-
cherrib Mishmash, Giba, Ephraim. There is the
long drawn hill line of Moab. There is Herodion

where the King-Tetrarch was buried : below it you
see the edge of Bethlehem which he so feared. That
high point is Neby Samuel and beyond it is Ramah.
Close by, that single peak is Gibeah of Saul/ where
Rizpah watched so long. (Bye the bye that is a 5th
subject to choose from, for I went there on purpose
to get the view : & wonderful it is. A. the Moab
hills. B. Dead Sea. C. Jordan.) And thus, even
from one spot of ground, you are full of thought on
endless histories & poetries I cannot conceive
any place on Earth like Jerusalem for astonishing
and yet unfailing mines of interest.

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Letters of Edward Lear

But to leave an endless subject : My stay at
Bethlehem delighted me greatly, And I then hoped
to have got similar drawings of all the Holy Land.
All the country near it is lovely, and you see Ruth
in the fields all day below those dark olives. (This
is the 6th subject. A. the Moab hills.) Next
to those I came to the Dead Sea, which is a
wonder in its way, but the finest part, Ain Gidi,
I could not draw well, by reason of more Arab
botheration. Beyond there I saw little else of
Southern Palestine, the plain of Jericho, but not

the Jordan, for there again my beloved Arabs dis-
troyed my peace. Mar (Deir) Saba, a wonderful
monastery " all as one cut of a Cheshire cheese " as
my man said : the plain of Sharon, & Jaffa : this
was all.

The last part of my journey, (for I came from
Jaffa by sea to Beirut,) has been of a different kind.
All the Lebanon country is safe & pleasant, & the
Maronite Xtians are kindly & respectable critters.
But on the other hand, there wants that indescribable
charm, far above and beyond all local beauty &
novelty, which the scenery of sublimer Palestine

108

Palestine, Corfu, and England

brings to the mind. The higher portions of Lebanon,
i.e. the outer side recall Etna : & the stonier &
more confined scenes, many a well known Cumberland
& Westmoreland dell : The whole plain of Ccelo-
Syria, green & lovely as it is, is but Sicilian land-
scape, or Thessaly on a larger scale. The interior
of Lebanon is however wonderfully fine : a kind
of Orientalized Swiss scenery : innumerable villages
dot the plateaus & edge the rocks which are spread on
each side of & rise above dark ravines, winding
winding downward to the plains of Tripoli and
the blue sea. All these I could well have wished
to explore and draw, & I might have gone thither,
had I not become so very unwell from the extreme
cold of the upper part of the mountain as to be
obliged to return into Ccelo-Syria as soon as I could,
having my drawing of the Cedars as a sign of my
Lebanon visit.

Next I saw Baalbec but I can by no means endorse
the enthusiasm of travellers regarding these very
grand ruins. Their immense size, their proportions,
the inimitable labour & exquisite workmanship of
their sculptured details; none can fail to be struck
with, nor to delight in contemplating. But, all the
florid ornaments of architecture, (Roman withall,)
cannot fill up the place of simplicity, nor to me is
it possible to see hideous forms of Saracenic walls
around & mixed with such remains as those of
Baalbec, without a feeling of confused dislike of the
whole scene, so incomplete & so unimpressive. To

109

Letters of Edward Lear

my mind, the grand and positive-simple Temple of
Paestum the lonely Segesta the Parthenon &
Theseium, & above all, the astonishing singleness
of the Egyptian temples are worth heaps of Baalbeks.
Possibly also, the presence of 6 tents full of English
travellers, of a rope-dancer from Cairo, with conse-
quent attendant crowds, & of a village full of tiresome
begging impical Heliopolitans had somewhat to do
with my small love of Baalbek & its neighbourhood.
The day's journey thence half way over Anti
Lebanon, & the following journey down hither would
be of great interest could more time be spent on
the way : but though I have added little to my
collection of drawings, the view of this city and its
plain is almost a recompence for any trouble. Imagine
1 6 worlds full of gardens rolled out flat, with a river
and a glittering city in the middle, & you have
a sort of idea of what the Damascus pianura is like.
I really hope to get a good view of this, but I am
sadly put out at losing two days by the vagaries of
these horrid Musclemen, not to speak of my being
lame from a stone thrown at me yesterday, pig ! I
shall set off from here on Saturday the 2 9th & get to
Beirut I hope on June ist.

Lear to Fortescue.

CORFU. 18. June. 1858.

I have brought all my Judean and Coelo- Syrian
drawings back safe, and have gained in energy
physical and moral, by this tour into the most

Palestine, Corfu, and England

interesting land I have ever travelled over, besides
filling my mind with scenes enough to last a longer
life than mine is likely to be.

My own plans are not for an immediate going
away from here unless European war should break
out, when I shall come to England at once.
Frank L[ushington] goes in a few weeks : I need
not say how I shall miss him : whenever I have
thought him less friendly than I have supposed he
should have been, I have invariably found he was
acting rightly and uprightly & that I myself had
misinterpreted him now and then. He is one of the
best unions of mind & principle I have known. I
wish you knew him : Do try & do so when he gets
to England : there are few better worth knowing on
every account.

Shall all of you come in again ? For I don't
believe the Derbyites will stand. I regret Lord
S[tanley] ever having joined them.

July 5th. CORFU. 1858.

Those Jerusalem letters I never had, but I have
written to have them sent here. Concerning that,
as you justly call it, " ridiculous Bishopric," J I hardly
know to whom you can apply. Holman Hunt knows
a good deal. Have you seen a pamphlet by Dr.
Graham ? ask for & get it. Holman Hunt can tell you

1 The Jerusalem Bishopric was founded about 1841. Lear
is referring to the difficulties that had arisen between the
Consul and Bishop Gobat, head of the Mission.

Ill

Letters of Edward Lear

where. I don't believe you can really understand the
whole mess except by going there & finding out what
each party says. You are right to enquire & work.
(Did you see a passing observation on yourself in the
Saty. mag. (or Leader?) week before last?) Work,
work : so that the next turn of the wheel you may be
only one step below Merivale, not two as you were last
ministry. (!)

You will be sorry to hear I have had a bad eye, a
sty, only more like an abscess : My brain is con-
fused between cause & effect, & I don't know if my
being a pig has produced the sty, or whether the sty
makes me a pig. But I know I am a pig.

I will send you such a funny book, " The Tempest,"
'H TPIKYMIA. It is extremely well translated, Caliban i
& Ariel are delightful. Isn't this pretty.

TO we

jiXiu KOI XajStrE
(TO

'g rfjv a^uoStw,

y\vica, <r' ore XaXw.
ytid, 7Eta, rove

MTTOOI;, flyaov.
yavyovv ra ^u
112

Palestine, Corfu, and England

Avrt(f>.

M.TTO.OV, /3yaow.
rov iriruv

XaXet

ra fjivarripia

This place is wonderfully lovely. I wish you could
see it ; if you came I could put you up beautifully, &
feed you on Ginger-beer & claret & prawns & figs.

A. Tennyson has written two more poems, one I
hear is a dialogue between a gent. & lady.

If I go to Jerusalem, I shall have to ask you a
good deal about the matter, as I am inclined to be
"impetuous" overmuch, & might start a periodical
" The cursed City " as a title.

P.S. The K. of Greece landed here 3 days ago :
& went up to see Sir J. & Lady Y. He was received
immensely by the Corfiotes, as you may suppose.

About the middle of August Lear left for
England with Lushington, who was hurrying
back in consequence of the death of his brother
and niece. After the usual succession of
visits to the Husey Hunts, the J. Crosses,
the Hornbys, and others, he settled down in
his London lodgings to execute the numerous
orders received.

1 Translation of " Come unto these yellow sands, "&c. Act I.
sc. ii.

H3 I

Letters of Edward Lear

16. UPPER SEYMOUR STREET,

PORTMAN SQUARE,

13. Sept. 1858.

I forget what I told you of my doings : after
Knowsley I went to Liverpool, & then to Man-
chester where the kind Sir John Potter T took me
in. Coming back by Derby, I saw the " Corfu " in
its place, & I passed my Sunday at W. Nevill's
the 7th house I have seen beadornamented by my
own paws.

My dear boy, I cannot go to Dudbrook. 2 My
straight plan now, as soon as I get the pictures
unpacked, is to WORK. I cannot work with my
mind frittered by agreable society. A painter must
be a painter. If you are writing to Lady W. say I
shall write : And both you & she may be sure that
my not going is because I want to do her Pictures
WELL, also Lord Clermonts.

You will be glad not to say skipping to hear that
Holman Hunt has seen the sketches both of Masada
& her view of Jerusalem & is thoroughly pleased with
both. It is the funniest thing to talk over all those
places with him. When you are coming to town
let me know. I long to see you again. I keep in
lodgings here, but shall paint elsewhere. At present
I am all upside down nohow bebothered & can

only write this much. Did I tell you y\ had
written in all 5 new poems?

1 The member for Manchester, and first Mayor of the City.

2 In Essex. One of Lady Waldegrave's houses.

114

mmi

Palestine, Corfu, and England

i TOR VILLA.

CAMPDEN HILL

KENSINGTON.
Monday evening

[Before Nov. i, 1858.]

I am exceedingly annoyed that I cannot come : I
have appointed Dr. Rimbault 1 to come & set down
some of my songs 2 this evening & he comes all the
way from Camden Town, & it is theyfotf night : more-
over I have just been into town to send off poor
sister Ann, but that would not matter if I could
possibly otherwise manage it.

16. HUPPER SEEMORE STREET,

PORTMAN - *8*/z Nov.

Coming home at 11.30,
from Mr. Stanley's, I find

1* /r n , your Wusstussher noat.

** ^=^^~r- Thank God I ain't to be

rubbed by a beastly fiend
with a wet sheet : 3 But I believe you will be all
the better for it. Is Ward Braham rubbed rubbing
rubbable or rubbabibbabubbapbimbubabebabblllleee

1 An indefatigable composer and writer on musical subjects.
He rescued from oblivion and published, some of the best work
of the early English composers.

2 Lear set many of Tennyson's poems to music and sang them,
though he had no knowledge of music, and had only what the
French call a " filet de voix " ; yet he rendered them with so
much expression as to make tears start to the eyes of his hearers.

3 Refers to a visit of Fortescue to Dr. Gully's establishment and
cold water cure.

Letters of Edward Lear

also ? ! I rote to you this morning : but, how the
debble could your letter reach me to-night ?

At Mrs. Stanley's there was Arthur, 2 (who is grown
much more expansive & talkative & World-like than
of old though as good & kind as always :) Mr.
Penrhyn 3 & Emmy ditto, always good. Mary Stanley
of Scutari memories & twisted faith, Walrond who is
stilty & scholastic : & one Adolphus, whose name
savours of Dolphins. The conversation was not
bad : mostly of Spain & Biarritz, with sparks of fun.
Show'd all my sketches to Arthur S. & Walrus, &
was pleased by their praise of their fiddlediddlety of
representation. But we don't agree about the beauty
of Palestine i I say that " there is beauty in every-
thing " is a better principle than " look for conven-
tional beauty, & failing that don't see any."

Returning here, I find varicose gnoats. One from
Mr. Morier, containing ever so much good Greek.

aujOtov Sa IpyofJLai Trpog art irptv rate evSeca Sjpait;, va <rl
va tow, S'aujua^wv, TO.Q Trig fIapai(TTY)viig Zwypatytag
$oj3e/>a Sa yivwrai TO. avaicaraaJ/tiara rrjg I<ovtK>)e
) rtrota yai$apo\tKia irorl Stv TjKOua-a." 4 He writes

really good Romaic.

1 Lady Waldegrave's youngest brother, who accompanied
Fortescue.

* Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, a close personal friend of Lear's,
who is mentioned frequently in the letters, was the second son
of the Bishop of Norwich. He was appointed Chaplain to the
Prince Consort in 1854, and afterwards became Dean of West-
minster. Mary Stanley, his sister, was in charge of fifty nurses in
the Crimea during the war. 3 Brother-in-law of Lord Derby.

* To-morrow I am coming to you before eleven o'clock. Yea

116

Palestine, Corfu, and England

mi ! how giddy I is ! Perhaps it is along of the
cliff of Ain Giddi : perhaps of the glass of sherry &
water close by only I ain't drank it yet.

1 wen tup two the Zoological Gardings, & drew
a lot of Vulchers : also I saw the eagles & seagles &
beagles & squeegles : leastwise the big bears & all
the other vegetables.

also the little dragging, who is the Beast of the
Revialations.

Miss Mackenzie is married this afternoon to Lord
Ashburton, 34 60.

The cold is so great that my nose is frizz so hard
that I use it as a paper cutter.

I have axed Lord Stanley for the Cadetship, 1 &
have written to Lady Derby to know if she wants
her usbing's hancester's picter.

To-morrow I go to Holman Hunts, to city, pay
bills, & dine at Beadons. Saturday Clowes comes

I shall greet you and shall see with admiration your pictures of
Palestine. Fearful indeed did the up-and-down motions of the
Ionian Sea become, what universal longings for terra firma have
ever come to me.

1 Probably for a nephew or young friend.

117

Letters of Edward Lear

up : & I go to Cramers to arrange finally about the
5 songs. Poor dear Lady Bethell writes me a sad
note : I fear now that she is really ill.

It is zis ted-bime, Goodnight. My love to the
water fiend.

PAVILION HOTEL, FOLXTON.

Novbr. 25/58.

Still one more line. Your's retched me here
(spelling adaptable to circumstances,) this morning,
on my coming over from my last visit to my old
sister. I don't see any phun in the 2 coal'd pales of
water on one's bak : & I think your remarx on
Water-worx generally are far from untrue. Seriously,
I should conceive that the necessity of constant con-
templation of one's health can't be good for the body or
mind, & I don't see but that you are right to cease
the trial.

This, I suppose will find you at L d Clarendon's :
of whose visit to the Montalembert-scruncher, 1 I hope
you will think well,

And hereabouts, my bilious and skrogfrodious
temperament screws itself up to give you a rowing for
what your enemies call a " desultory " & " dilettante "
tone of life. The moral of this abrupt & angular

1 The fiery debate which took place in Parliament in March
on the subject of Lord Canning's Indian proclamation, was the
occasion for the issue of the Comte de Montalembert's
celebrated pamphlet " Un Debat sur 1'Inde au Parlement
Anglais," in which he contrasted the political freedom in
England with the conditions prevailing in France. For this
he was prosecuted by the French Government.

118

Palestine, Corfu, and England

preachment is that neither you nor nobody else will do
no good if you do things by halves and squittles.

My feeling is, Lord Stanley in political life, or
Holman Hunt in painting are the best 2 coves to be
imitated in 1858 : alike in this, that what either do,
they do thoroughly & well. As a set off to this beastly
jerk of my temper, I do allow that you thought of me
in sending Kingsley's book by post as you did, where-
by I am cutting it & some toast at the present
momenx. also that in matters of friendship you are
not a "dilettante" but a realist & praeraphaelite.

Since I left town I have suffered less from Asthma
daily but yet a good deal. At Husey Hunts (Lewes)
I felt, as I alway do, their extreme kindness, greatly.
Thence I went to Ann at Margate : Sister No. 2 is
coming home from New Zealand, (about April,) and I
hope Ann will then live with her, as at 68, & in failing
health I do not like her being so alone. It is always a
hard task to leave the poor dear old lady, & I have to
act hard-hearted to keep her at all quiet.

Arrived here, I find a most good and kind letter
from Lady Isabella Proby on poor dear John Proby's
death. 1 She says, " I send you these details of my
brother John's death, because I know you loved
him." And this was true : I did love him very
much, and that fellow Bowen's coarse ridicule of
him was one among many of my causes of dislike
towards him.

1 Lord Proby, heir to the Earldom of Carysfort, died at the
age of 35. Lady Isabella was his sister.

119

Letters of Edward Lear

But I myself was never kind to John Proby as I
should have been, for which I suffer now, and some
day shall perhaps suffer more.

Regarding money Gibbs writes here that he has
paid in 60 odd s to Drummings, & also Cramer &
Beale have putchissed my 5 new songs, & the copy-
rights of the old 4. So, if so be as you wants to get,
(i) "Come not when I am dead "(2) " When thro' the
land," (3) " The time draws near " (4) " Home they
brought " I (5) " O let the solid ground " nows your
time at Cramers 201, Regent Street. I could tell you
a kind doing of Lord Stanley, but have no thyme now.

Goodbye once more : my dear Chichester Fortescue.

Lord Lyons' 2 death has just come to me also. You
know I think that he saved my life when at Thebes
1 848 3 by sending promptly out two doctors in a coach
& four : had they not arrived I should not be
writing to you now.

Aprettygo this of the Montalembert decision in Paris.

1 Twelve of Lear's songs from Tennyson were included in
this series, and afterwards were published by Hutchins and
Romer. The following extract from a letter of Lear's in 1882
on the death of Archbishop Tait will give some idea of Lear's
singing : " The latter was always very kind to me, and once
said in a big party when I had been singing ' Home they brought
her warrior,' and people were crying : ' Sir, you ought to have
half the Laureateship.' That was in '51, when he was Dean of
Carlisle."

3 At Arundel Castle when he held the post of Minister at
Athens. He was practical commander of the Fleet throughout
the Crimean War.

3 See letter of July 19, 1848, from Athens, p. 10.

J2O

CHAPTER V
December, 1858, to November, 1859

ROME REVISITED

THE Ionian islands, which had been
formed into a republic under the
Protectorate of Great Britain after the Treaty
of Vienna, had long been seething with dis-
content, as they very naturally disliked the
foreign yoke, and desired union with Greece.
Sir Edward Lytton, who had succeeded Lord
Stanley as Secretary for the Colonies, decided
to send an envoy to investigate the causes
of dissatisfaction, and for this purpose he
appointed Mr. Gladstone Lord High Com-
missioner Extraordinary to the islands in
November, 1858. Mr. Gladstone's mission
was not a success, as the people persisted in
regarding him as the herald of freedom, and
public opinion was so hostile in England that,
after his return, a new Lord High Commis-

121

Letters of Edward Lear

sioner was sent out to enforce the British rule
with greater stringency. But the idea grew
and gained ground that the cession of the
islands to Greece was only a matter of time.

Lear to For fescue.

ROME, 13. December. 1858.

I have just got your letter 2nd & 4th. If you
knew how often I have worried myself about the letter
I wrote to you, you would not have added coals to my
head by writing so kindly. The very fact of my
opinions having weight sufficient to draw forth an
answer should make me more careful of the ways &
manner in which I put them into words or on paper.
There are times when I turn into bile and blackness,
body & soul, & in those phases of life I hate myself &
through myself hate everybody, even those I like best.
The general accusation of forgetfulness may have had
some foundation as regards you, but I am sure I
ought not to have written disgustingly as I know
I did, and, as I set out by saying, I have been
thoroughly vexed by having done so ever since. Pray
forget this ugly little parenthesis in our friend-life :
and believe that the irritation of an artist's life
produces much which works its possessor bitterness,
when that individual's brain has been so little guided
in youth as mine was.

I was at Margate with my old sister on the 25th.
Novr. & Clowes joined me on the 26th. at Folke-

122

Rome Revisited

stone whence we crossed to Paris & remained there
the 2;th. & 28th. What a splendid city that has
become ! I never saw anything like the Rue de
Rivoli : On Monday the 29th. we reached Marseilles,
& that evening left for Italy, reaching Rome at mid-
night on Wednesday the i st, and glad to get to bed in
the Europa.

The 12 days since then have been to me the most
weary and sadly depressing I have passed for long
years. And so dismal has been the return here, that
only the friendlyness of ancient acquaintances, & the
even temper and kindness of Clowes could have kept
me above water : 2 or 3 times I have nearly resolved
on going off straight to America. Day after day I
have gone up & down stairs, but could find nothing to
live in under any circumstances : Every place of any
sort I could paint in, furnished, & at Grosvenor-
Square prices, fancy, for 3 stuffy pokey rooms, foul, &
vile, & up 4 floors, 15^ a month ! At last, having
resolved that I must finish the pictures here (which
as yet are not heard of even as far as Leghorn) I
determined on taking (& I could only get it for 2
years) a set of apartments in the New Palazzo
Albertazzi ; I have got the 4th floor (half of it) & am
furnishing it as fast as I can : it is to cost 2o per
quarter, a sum I ought not to pay, & yet cannot avoid
nailing myself to : As yet I have only got carpets
cut, besides a portable bed-stead, six chairs, a pair of
bellows, & a pepper-box. Clowes has got a lodging
at 31 P. di Spagna & we see much of each other.

123

But how can I tell you of the curious feelings which
an absence of 1 1 years has occasioned on revisiting
this place? It is impossible to do so. Moreover, I
wish to send this off to-morrow, Robt. Hay, 1 the
Knights, 2 the Bertie Mathews, Williams, & Gibson,3
are here of old friends.

Dec. 1 4th. Here is a go! Poor Clowes riding with
C. Knight yesterday had a fall (his horse stepped
in a hole) & he has broken his collar bone. So there
is enough for me to think of just now. Meanwhile,
I can't get into my rooms yet at all, and am really
nearly mad.

5. January. 1859.

9. VIA CONDOTTI. ROME.

It is all well that you did not come into the room,
instead of the apparition of your letter : if you had I
should have had a fit & died. For I was so miserable
that I had to put away my drawing & pace up & down
the room, so that when your dear good kind letter
came, I could not help the tears a busting out of my
eyes incontinent, all the more as I read it : a weak-
ness I had to conceal from Giorgio, who has a theory
that " chi piange per altro che la morte di sua madre,

1 Robert Hay was the leading member of an archaeological
expedition to Egypt, 1826-32, and forty-nine volumes of his
drawings were afterwards purchased by the British Museum.

2 The family of John Knight of Wolverley. The eldest
daughter married the Duke of Sermoneta ; the second daughter,
Isabella, was a hopeless invalid.

3 John Gibson, the sculptor, who died in Rome 1866. He
revived the use of colour in statuary.

124

Rome Revisited

e sciocco," 1 or as he words it usually "6 o-rrolog

X<*J/(He &ta TOV Savarov TJJC firirpog TOV, ttvai yaiSapOG \J-0-,

an ass). 2

I shall now dismiss my worries & reproaches about
you, leastwise considering myself a mitigated beast, &
I shall send this as soon as I can, hoping also you
may soon write again, for the relief your letters &
those of F. Lushington & others give me is not to be
expressed. (Bye the bye do try & know F.
Lushington at the Cosmopolite or elsewhere.) I
shall now look over your letter, & answer in comments
dividable by linear appearances.

Gladstone & Corfu are queer absurdities : why
didn't Dizzy let Lord Stratford (who was on the
spot) settle things ? But still, though Gladstone was
not a fit man to send, the Govt. have shown that
they mean to set a new system to work, Gorgeous'
going to wit as proof for he had no alternative^ tho'
he vows he is going by choice. I expect poor Sir J.
will resign, 3 as he ought to have done earlier & that
he & all the Ionian suite will come here bye and
bye.

I am very glad you have been enjoying yourself.
It is not wonderful that anyone should like Stanley :
I envy those who see much of him, as I have a kind

1 "Who weeps for aught but the death of his mother is
foolish."

2 Practically the same as the Italian translation, with Lear's
addition.

3 Sir J. Young did resign, and Sir Henry Storks was appointed
in his place.

125

of mixed affection and interest and admiration for him
I never felt united for anybody.

I need not say I was glad to know you saw more of
Lady W. (What a fuss I am in to-day about her

pictures : they are come but the d d dogana will

not let them pass d brutes.)

My kindest respects to Mrs. Ruxton : I am glad
the i,ooo,ooo's sauce-pan is more to the purpose.

By jingo ! if you were to come at Easter ! Only, I
might go crazy.

I have hung my show-room with white, & hope to
get some drawings into it before long : but I am
dreadfully bothered by invitations, which I abhor.
Dinners are natural and proper : but late mixed tea-
parties foul & abhorrent to the intelligent mind.

Do you know I like Egerton H[arcourt] l better than
I expected, indeed very well and also Lady Frances. 2
I laughed at your note about "Jessie "3 she is too
powerful by half, yet somewhat jolly. I am asked
there to-morrow night, but I'm hanged if I'll go.
That's the end of my notes on your's & now I shall
shuffle on promisquis.

First for goodness sake say who is Richard Bright?-*
who rather is Mrs. B. ? I have taken a liking to

1 Youngest son of the Archbishop of York. George Harcourt,
Lady Waldegrave's husband, was the eldest son.

2 Daughter of the fifth Earl of Oxford and widow of an
elder brother of Egerton Harcourt.

3 Second wife of Mr. Granville Vernon, another brother of Mr.
George Harcourt. She was a daughter of the twenty-second
Lord Dacre.

He in Parliament. She a daughter of Admiral Wolley.

126

Rome Revisited

R. B. because he knows & likes you : also he knows
others of my friends. So I dined there, last week,
with S. W. Clowes (who having broken his collar-
bone is now out again,) & showed him a bit of the
Gampagna on Sunday. He seems a sensible fellow,
& don't talk watering-place rot. At his house I met
Gibbs * (former tutor to P[rince] of W[ales]) whom I
liked & W. Palmer of religious fervid search 2 &
George Waldegrave 3 who seemed a nice fellow also.
But, as all here, these people go squittering after
sights, & are no more themselves seen.

The Stratford's 4 live a long way off beyond the
4 Fontane. I have been asked to T., & have not
gone but called : I doubt my seeing much of them.

Can you get, or write, & send me out a letter of
introduction to Odo Russell ? 5 or to him to me if
that is the better way ? He is spoken of as well worth
knowing, & I should like to know him if I could.

1 Frederick W. Gibbs, Q.C., C.B , tutor to H.R.H. the Prince
of Wales, 1852-8.

2 Palmer of Magdalen, author of many theological works.
When Augustus Hare's mother and sister were left destitute in
Rome in September, 1859, through the treachery of an abscond-
ing lawyer, the son relates how their old friend, Mr. William
Palmer, came forward, and " out of his very small income
pressed upon them a cheque for i$o."

3 Third son of the eighth Earl and cousin of Lady Walde-
grave's husband, the seventh Earl.

* Lord and Lady Stratford de Redcliffe.

5 The brilliant diplomatist, afterwards Ambassador at Berlin ;
while nominally holding paid Attacheship at this time at Flor-
ence, was employed at Rome on special service. Having no cre-
dentials for the Vatican, his relations with Cardinal Antonelli and
the resident diplomatic body, were thus of an informal nature.

127

Letters of Edward Lear

The Knights live here much as ever, Isabella pass-
ing her 1 8th year in bed (I mean she has been in bed
1 8 years ) but bright & patient always. Margaret
Dss. of Sermoneta fading slowly : but kinder & softer
than most Knights are. All are just as friendly as
ever to me. So indeed are all Mr. Hay now nearly
blind : & the Bertie Matthews, but these two last live
in society & cliquerie.

The James Marshalls l (she was a Spring Rice)
with Aubrey de Vere 2 are gone to Naples. The
Barrett Brownings also are here, but I know them
not. Various Americans Cushman (Miss 3) Perkins,4
& Storeys are pleasant & good but as yet I eschew
general society, being wholly cross & bigongulous.
My hopes are set on the Grand Duchess Maria
Nicolowiena 5 of Russia, whom I hope to see here
when I get my Athos paintings out if they ever do
come out. Your friend Lord Granville 6 is here on
crutches.

The Holy Church outside the P. del Popolo,
thrives : it is belarged and beorganed, & be-beautified :

1 Third son of John Marshall of flax-spinning fame.

2 Third son of the poet-baronet, and himself a poet.

3 Charlotte Cushman, the great American tragic actress.

* Augustus Hare mentions meeting at Venice in 1892 a Mrs.
Mary Ridge Perkins, a quaint old American lady, who had
adopted thirty homeless children.

s Sister of the Czar Alexander II., widow of Maximilian, Duke
of Leuchtenberg.

6 The second Earl, President of the Council in Lord Palmer-
ston's Ministry, 1852-8, when he resigned, but resumed the office
in 1859.

128

Rome Revisited

& the chaplain Woodward is a good earnest man &
preaches most Abercrombycally, 1 tho' he is a High
Churchman. Everybody likes him, but the misery of
the Sunday sittings on feeble chairs ! Vast women
in black velvet hoops utterly carry off & prostrate
many delicate men as they struggle to their seats.
Many men kneel on hoops & dresses, & a
section of the congregation is all over-balanced in
consequence.

The philosophical silent Suliot is of the greatest
comfort to me. His remarks in Greek by play
kill me. " ' ATr&a/ntvoi OVTOI 01 avZp^Troi" 2 he says of the
Romans, who are so slow & odiously indifferent.
And of their incessant begging, "AVTOI flvai "ApaSoi,
juovov x ouv w*/wtf<rtfrep0 tv^ofiara." 3 It is hardly possible
to be thankful enough for so good a servant. He
says of Lushington that when he left, Giovanni (G.'s
younger brother who was L.'s under-servant ) would
not stay with the new Judge, but returned to his
former trade of tailor, but, says G. he does nothing
but talk of his old master instead of working. L.
seems to have made himself beloved at Corfu as
everywhere else.

Correct your toe & tete in what it ails. It is a mis-
take to have toes at all : hoofs would have been
simpler & less expensive, as precluding boots.

1 A reference used often in Lear's letters, but I cannot discover
the man or the origin of the expression.

2 " These men are dead."

3 " These men are Arabs, but have more clothes on."

129 K

Letters of Edward Lear

9. VIA CONDOTTI. ROMA.

Janry. 24. 1859.

To-day has brought me yours of the 1 5th, which
oily rejoiced me. I won't go to church to-day, like a
good boy, & will write to you instead. I heard of you
two days back when Lady Bethell wrote to me, &
said she had been talking with "an extremely nice
friend " of mine at Lord Palmerstons.

I seem to have a great deal to say, but am scattery,
& shan't write connectedly. I am not rejoiceful in
Rome & cannot "set myself in any good way." I
have no one with whom to sympathize at all closely.
S. W. Clowes is the kindest hearted & best fellow
possible, but he has no application to or taste for
much I would always lean to, nor could I talk with
him as I do with you on many subjects. I wish
indeed you were here for a time, but I trust to see
you in Ireland or England before next winter. The
mass of people here pass their lives in mere pleasure,
a regular Bath & Brighton life & I don't care to
know them. Others are naturally using every
moment in seeing sights & learning Rome. Others
have jealousies & smallnesses & professional quirks
from wh. I wholly stand aloof. O Lord ! I wishes
I was a beadle ! r

All my smaller painting's here have been bought

1 The beadles who stand outside the palaces of the great
Roman nobles are still objects of admiration. The magnificence
of their traditional costume no doubt attracted both the artist
and humourist in Lear.

130

Rome Revisited

3 by a dear delightful chap one Aubrey de Vere
Beauclerk, 1 who lives somewhere near Belfast.

Lord Stratford was here for nearly two hours the
other day & really delightful : he spoke of you in very
nice terms. The Youngs & all the Palace party are
coming here directly. Do you think Dizzy selected
Sir H. Stork 2 on purpose that being called King
Stork, his predecessor might for ever be dubbed King
Log?

We have the Prince of Wales here, who seems a
very nice looking & prepossessing lad.

i$tk. Febry. I think I shall send this off to-day.
I hear a Colonel Dunn 3 is appointed in the room of
G. F. B. Gladstone appears to be making a great
mess. Do you know Spring rice-ious people? I
dined with some to-day. I wish one could know if
there is likely to be war or not : it would be a bore to
be boxed up here in the middel of hennemies. Do
you know Odo Russell our new envoy here ? All the
English fribble-world is irate about a Miss Cavendish,
whom Mrs. Hare a pervert, (sister of Sir John Dean
Paul,) has cajoled & bebaptismalized, unbeknown to

1 Of Ardglass Castle, Co. Down.

2 Sir Henry Storks was appointed Lord High Commissioner
of the Ionian Islands in February, 1859, and remained there till
the protectorate was resigned. He was afterwards Governor of
Malta and Jamaica.

3 Possibly Colonel F. P. Dunne, who was secretary and aide-
de-camp at this time to Lord Eglinton, Lord Lieutenant of Ire-
land. Mr. (afterwards Sir) Henry Drummond Wolfe, was,
however, appointed secretary in the place of Sir George Bowen.

Letters of Edward Lear

her parents. 1 Manning 2 is preaching most atrocious
sermons here, to which nevertheless, all heaps of
fools go. A vile beastly rottenheaded foolbegotten
brazenthroated pernicious piggish screaming, tearing,
roaring, perplexing, splitmecrackle crashmecriggle
insane ass of a woman is practising howling below-
stairs with a brute of a singingmaster so horribly,
that my head is nearly off.

P.S. Has Cramer published my songs yet?

Lear to Lady Waldegrave.

9. VIA CONDOTTI, ROMA.

26. March. 1859.

At last your two pictures are done, & will be out
of my hands in two days from this, & before the first
of May I trust they will be in Carlton Gardens. So
far as admiration of them can please an artist I have
certainly had a full share from the 7 or 800 people
who have seen them in my study : but I shall never-
theless be very desirous to know how you are pleased
with them. The Masada is the most striking : its
sunset-colour, & excessive lonely character must
always make it so. The Jerusalem is perhaps the
most interesting ; & I hope both will give you plea-

1 A daughter of Admiral Cavendish. The " Mrs. Hare" here
mentioned was the mother of Augustus J. C. Hare, " Italima "
in the " Story of my Life," and in vol. ii. p. 97 he tells a story
of his mother's earlier acquaintance with Miss Cavendish in
August, 1858.

2 The following year Cardinal Manning became domestic
prelate to the Pope

132

LADY WALDEGRAVE.

From a photograph taken in iSjQ.

One among a number taken in conte inflation of a statuette

executed later by Xoble.
This one a special post from one of the plays acted at Nuneham.

Rome Revisited

sure for many years to come. At any time I should
have finished these two pictures carefully for my own
sake, & on account of the interest of the subjects, but
I must tell you that I have been more than ordinarily
attentive to your two commissions, in as much as they
were given me in faith, and because the payment of
one of them was an assistance to me in going to the
Holy Land.

For the same reason I have taken as much pains
as I could with Lord Clermont's picture too, which
I believe I shall send off also next week. Neither
picture of Jerusalem will I ever repeat, for the minute
architecture has tried my sight a good deal, & more-
over I hold that an Artist loses much of his originality
by repetition of his works.

The war between France and Austria now
broke out, but was over very quickly. The
difficulties in Italy, however, were rather
augmented than diminished, as the Italians
found that Louis Napoleon had no intention
of literally fulfilling his promise to free them
from the yoke of Austria. The national move-
ment against foreign supremacy and the
temporal claims of the Pope, soon began to
assume threatening proportions under the
leadership of Garibaldi.

133

Letters of Edward Lear

Lear to Fortescue.

9. VIA CONDOTTI, ROMA.

May i, 1859.

Here's a pretty kettle of fishes ! ain't it ? Every-
body here is trying to get away, but they can't, for the
roads thro' Tuscany are more or less uncertain, & no
one chooses to risk horses being taken for troops.
While, the same panic fills all the boats at Naples,
& not a place is to be got at C. Vecchia, where several
hundred English are staying, on dit, like to poor
folk about the pool of Bethesda. The last 3 or 4
days are indeed very full of thunder clouds, & no
one knows what is to follow. (The P[rince] of
W[ales] goes to-morrow). As for myself, I do not
know which way to turn. Should the war continue,
or spread in new directions, it is clear that no
strangers will come here, & the place will be utterly
odious ; yet I have taken expensive rooms for 2 years
& a half, and have spent every farthing I have in
fitting them up as a winter home. Possibly, if things
grow much worse, I may come [to England], & pub-
lish some of my tours by subscription, living ob-
skewerly & cheaply. In less than 10 days I hope
to send off Baring's & the other pictures. Next
to make the studies for Gibbs, Hey wood, 1 & Stam-
field's pictures in the Campagna. This will bring me
to June, by which time I must decide some way or
other.

If I ever come to England I must see you at Red

1 Arthur Hey wood, of Stanley Hall, Yorks.
134

Rome Revisited

House, but I should mainly have to poke about
London, & therefore I had half as rather not come
this year, all the more that the N.Z. sister comes over
for 2 years & at first family matters won't be
happy, as there has been much bother of late, &
I always keep out of these messes, though I have
come down with ^20 in the winter for the amiable
relatives here and there, as is right & fit. My
money affairs are, au plus bas : but I don't like giving
up, so I shall hold on.

I hope you have not been over-bothered by the
Election 1 but, do you know I rather like you to
have to do the work, because it stirs you up, & your
nature requires that, I take it now and then. Lord
D[erby]'s speech about the Indian heroes was
good : but I don't think his Govt., or Lord S[tan-
ley] in particular have acted well to Lord Canning,
whose career has been one of the utmost difficulty,
and needed no ungenerosity to embitter it further :
the Earldom & the praise do not tally with the Ellen-
borough Stanley dispatches. 2

Yes indeed, I do feel " sick of time " here. I am
convinced of this more and more : if you have a

1 The defeat of Lord Derby's Government over Mr. Disraeli's
Reform Bill led to a Dissolution of Parliament in May.

3 On March 3, 1858, Lord Canning, then Governor-General
of India, issued his famous Proclamation practically confiscating
the whole of Oude. This was condemned by Lord Derby's
Government, and Lord Ellenborough, then President of the
Board of Control, sent a despatch disapproving of it in the
most violent terms. Lord Canning received an earldom on
May 21, 1859.

135

Letters of Edward Lear

wife, or are in love with a woman, (both phases
of the same state of self division, the only real and
proper state of life in this world) if I say such be your
condition, w avSptn-n-e ! * then you may stay in any place
& in any circumstances : you are raised out of the
necessity of contemplating the cussed nuisances of
poverty or bores by sympathy : but if you are abso-
lutely alone in the world, & likely to be so, then move
about continually & never stand still. I therefore
think I shall be compulsed & more especially by the
appearance of things on the horizon, to go to Japan
& New York, or Paraguay, or anywhere before long.

LlTTLEGREEN, PfiTERSFIELD, HANTS.

June 2/59.

You may suppose I was regularly delighted at
hearing from Lady Waldegrave how much she liked
the pictures. Out of the 6 paintings, my years work,
3 have given, & I trust will give, their proper share
of knowledge & pleasure.

I should gladly see Millais's worx, but do not
greatly expect to like them. I am quite aware of the
qualities of his mind, which I do not apprehend are
of the progressive nature, as are Holman Hunt's :
but his power and technical go, I have no doubt are
wonderful.

Here, there is as much cheerfulness as so much
sadness, the death of Lady Wilton 2 and Mrs. Hornby,

' " O man ! "

2 A daughter of the twelfth Earl of Derby and cousin of the
Hornbys. She died December, 1858.

136

Rome Revisited

& 2 children of Lady Denison, 1 & the sudden total
blindness of the dear old Admiral, can allow. I go
on writing quietly, 3 tours, Athos & Judaea & Alba-
nian Zagorian, & am generally placid in mental &
obese in physical conditions. Movov jut

Stv tfjLTTopH) va Kiip.it) TTSpKToroTtpav TT/oooSov Trjg '
ar\fjitpivr}Q yXwo-crr)^, rjTog iravTore /ue ^aivtrtu ujg tv TT/oay/ua
TTOU /UE 'XpeiaZtTai Ka3"' -fifttpavov. 2

From here I go to, Alfred Tennyson's Esqre.,
Faringford, Freshwater, Isle of Wight, whence let
me hear from you : I shall be there about Tuesday
next, the 7th.

I am on thorns for news about Italy : what a time
of events is it not ?

EAST WELLOW VICARAGE, ROMSEY.

12. June, 59.

Your's of yesterday week (posted later tho') I got
at Tennyson's, which place I left yesterday morning,
& after being in 12 vehicles reached this unutterably
quiet remoteness, whither I had come to see dear old
Mrs. Empson, & poor Wil. Henry E. the vicar.

I have not been here for 13 years, since which two
boys, 9 and 7 years old are di piu, & the kind mistress
of the house is gone, & lies under a white grave, on
which the Villagers put a fresh chaplet of roses every

1 Littlegreen was the residence of Admiral Sir Phipps
Hornby, K.C.B. Lady Denison was his second daughter and
the wife of the Governor of Van Diemen's Land.

a " I am only annoyed that I cannot make more progress
in modern Greek, which always seems the thing I need every
day."

137

Letters of Edward Lear

Sunday a circumstance I never saw in England
before.

Happily for me the Athanasian blasphemy was not
read to-day & I fancy never is here : the living being
in Nightingale of Emley's gift, who is not as you may
know reputed over orthodox, perhaps because he is
a truly good Xtian. They have 3 pictures of mine
here, Licenza, Athos, & Corfu, & it is very odd how
they bring me back past years. The fact is, time is
all nonsense : it is shorter & shorter & suppurates
into nil.

My visit at Fairford was very delightful in many
ways. I should think computing moderately, that
15 angels, several hundreds of ordinary women, many
philosophers, a heap of truly wise and kind mothers,
3 or 4 minor prophets, and a lot of doctors and
school-mistresses, might all be boiled down, and yet
their combined essence fall short of what Emily
Tennyson l really is. And the 2 boys are complete
little darlings. Alfred T. went up to town Friday,
& I hope the " Four Idylls of the King " will come
out very soon. You will be more delighted with
Elaine, & Guinevere than you can imagine.

A twitching regret bothers me at having left the place.

What does Urquhart 2 say to things in general as to
Russia? 3 I cannot see any daylight of certainty, or

1 Wife of the poet, and daughter of Henry Selwood.

2 Husband of Fortescue's younger sister.

3 " Mr. Urquhart was a very clever, self-opiniated, and often
curiously wrong-headed man. He had seen much of the East

138

Rome Revisited

any kind of comfort anywhere : much as I disagree
with Lord D[erby]'s party as guides of public pro-
gress, I cannot forget Lord P[almerston]'s Sicilian
& Italian or French obliquities. In fact my dear
4oscue I begin to think that public men are mainly
alike : & the debates on the address read to me very
like a personal set of quarrels carried thro' on polite
technical principles. I still hope to be in town about
the 25th or 27th., when I must set to work experi-
mentalizing about photographs, or lithographs or gros-
pigraphs for new publications. At present I am doing
little, but dimly walking on along the dusty twilight
lanes of incomprehensible life. I wish you were
married. I wish I were an egg and was going to be
hatched. Intanto, I shall go to sleep, for hang me
if I'll go to church again to-day.

Friday Knight.

Come, continually come : continually continue to
come. The morer the betterest or bestestmost. But
I must tell you that R. Cholmondeley l comes to
brekfiss on Sunday morning tho' that need not
prevent your doing so but it is phit I should
tell you.

and had a knowledge of Eastern ways and Eastern history which
few Englishmen could equal. But he was under the absolute
dominion of a mania with regard to Russia, which distorted
all his faculties" (McCarthy's "History of Our Own Times,"
vol. iii. p. 276).

1 Probably Reginald Cholmondeley, of Condover Hall,
Shropshire.

139

Letters of Edward Lear

Mrs. Urquhart answered my letter, and David U.
comes to-morrow. But, O Lord! They have sent
beforehand a huge paper on Turkish Baths, and
another on General poltiks, the which I can't and
don't intend to read. My hope is that several other
people will call at the same time so that no discussion
will enshoo. . . .

Did you ever meet a Baroness Blaise de Bury?
Not that that that that that has anything to do with
the subject except that I am going to sleep rapidgely,
and have no more sense. . . .

13 UPPER SEYMOUR STREET,
PORTMAN SQUARE,

July, 1859.

I had the message from the Attorney General I :
but I intended to have told you so, in a note I left on

r%\

your table yesterday />!> doubled up so.

I read your speech this morning, & it seemed to me
to read sensible & downright, & yet perlite & not
cross. I am very glad you have this additional scope
for your talents & study, & hope you will be a con-
tinually a speaking. Please give me a " place " in
New Zealand : then I shall be always in such a mess
you will always be obliged to be a excusing of me.

I wish I'd a "place " to paint in, meanwhile.

I have worse accounts of my poor sister Harriett,
this morning, but do not apprehend any immediate

Sir Richard Bethell.
140

Rome Revisited

danger. I fear I shan't go to Ireland this year.
How I wish I had some settled aboad, at least until
the last narrow box.

But if I settled myself I should go to Tobago the
next day.

What Italian doings!

Yrs affly

that's my new assygram.

The following poem shows Lear had evi-
dently been reading dough's " Amour de
Voyage." The metre is the same and the
imitation of the style is clever. In Lear's
letters, too, one meets the same Roman society
that is described by Clough :

15, STRATFORD PLACE,

9 July.
DEAR F.
Washing my rosecoloured flesh and brushing my

beard with a hairbrush,
Breakfast of tea, bread, and butter, at nine o'clock

in the morning,

Sending my carpet-bag onward I reached the Twicken-
ham station,

141

Letters of Edward Lear

(Thanks to the civil domestics of good Lady Wald'-

grave's establishment,)
Just as the big buzzing brown booming bottlegreen

bumblebizz boiler
Stood on the point of departing for Richmond and

England's metropolis.

I say (and if ever I said anything to the contrary I
hereby retract it)

I say I took away altogether unconsciously your
borrowed white fillagree handkerchief;

After the lapse of a week I will surely return it,

And then you may either devour it, or keep it, or
burn it,

Just as you please. But remember, I have not for-
gotten,

After the 26th day of the month of the present July,

That is the time I am booked for a visit to Nuneham.

Certain ideas have arisen and flourished within me,
As to a possible visit to Ireland, but nobody
Comes to a positive certainty all in a hurry :
If you are free and in London, next week shall we
dine at the Blue Posts ?

Both Mrs. Clive and her husband have written most

kindly
Saying the picture delights them (the Dead Sea)

extremely

142

Rome Revisited

Bother all painting! I wish I'd 200 per annum !
Wouldn't I sell all my colours and brushes and

damnable messes !
Over the world I should rove, North, South, East and

West, I would
Marrying a black girl at last, and slowly preparing to

walk into Paradise !

A week or a month hence, I will find time to make a

queer Alphabet,
All with the letters beversed and be-aided with

pictures,
Which I shall give (but don't tell him just yet) to

Charles Braham's little one.
143

Letters of Edward Lear

Just only look in the " Times" of to-day for accounts

of the " Lebanon!"
Now I must stop this jaw, and write myself quite

simultaneous,
Yours with a lot of affection the Globular foolish

Topographer.

E. L.

MONDAY AFTERNOON 18 July.

1859
I think I told you that my sister Harriett was ill, &

not likely ultimately to recover. The last accounts
however, were rather improved : until on Saturday
Evening a telegraphic message came to my sister in
Surrey, to say she was worse : & on the following
day a second message told that she had died in the
course of the night.

In any case I should not have been able to go to
Lady W.'s but as it is I am going off to-morrow
morning, to get to her funeral on the following day :
a long journey, near Aberdeen.

There are only now 7 of us left living out of all the
21. My eldest sister is staying in Sussex, & we are
anxious about the effecl this sudden news will have
on her.

Is there any conceivable history known resembling
this frightful Italian juggle ?

And from St. Leonards-on-Sea, where he
had taken some rooms in order to finish his

work in quiet, he writes on the 28th :

144

Rome Revisited

My sister's death was so sudden at the last, that her
nearer Scotch friends did not get to see her alive, poor
thing. She however wrote a note to another of my
sisters, only a few hours before her death, merely in
these words. " Do not be grieved that I am alone :
Christ is always with me : " & there is no doubt that
she died in complete calm & happiness. What a
dreary life hers has been ! & yet that of thousands
& thousands. "There's something in the world
amiss."

Bye the bye, you have not told me of Guinevere
yet, or perhaps have not had time to read it. Of
course prudes are shocked. I should like to tell you
some day or other of my argument with the Attorney
General, who contends A. T. is a small poet.

I am inclined to think that it is not difference of
opinion which makes me intolerant, so much as a
certain injustice, or " force majeure " applied in lieu of
bona fide argument.

3 1 st. July. This week past, & the end of that pre-
ceding it, have gone in what I call absolute work ;
& although the queer solitude in which I live & the
displeasing mill-round of toil is not particularly joyful,
yet apart from the thorough necessity of the daily life,
(in order that I may be out of debt if possible before
November,) I quite believe it is a better extreme for
me than the lounging existence to which I can look
back with no comfort, passed, since May i. in doing
nothing, & by expenses getting further into debt. I
believe, well as I know how much good I derive from

145 L

Letters of Edward Lear

friends & also, how often I give them pleasure, I shall
not go into the houses of the rich for some long time
to come, so painful to me is the retrospect (so far as
regards myself,) of the time I pass with them. I
except Red House, (& you know how regularly I
worked there,) & my dear friends the Winwick
Hornbys where I was always at work all day long.

This is what I do here : rise at 5^, & after 6 or so
am at work till 8, breakfast then work till 5 occa-
sionally obliged to leave off on account of sight, or
from utter weariness, when I do a line or two of
Sophocles, or compose some new song music, & at 5
dinner to 5! at most. Then to 7^ paint again, and
by the time the brushes are washed it is nearly dark,
& I potter out to the post with some notes I may
have written, or puddle along the shingly beach till
9J Then, half an hour Sophocles, & bed. This is
unvaried, barring the Sundays, when I go to Hastings
to dine with somebody or other No " followers " or
visits allowed in the week, nohow.

I believe if you go on working that you may & will
be of great service to your country : but I could point
out a more rapid course of usefulness, if you did not
object to the summary sacrifice of yourself upon the
halter of patriotism ; & that is instantly to squash
Messrs. Cobden & Bright, by pistol, pison, or knife,
as you think phit. You would assuredly & properly
be hung for the offence, but then think how the state
would gain !

Meanwhile, to me things look bitterly serious, as

146

Rome Revisited

regards our own land, & Europe too. More especially
of Italy, 1 whose Tuscany is at present a beautiful, but
lonely beacon of hope alas ! who knows if fated to
burn or die out ?

You may imagine how interested I am in all that
comes from Central Italy. Whether Garibaldi turns
up in the Legations, is a wonderful problem for a
week or two to solve.

Don't you delight in Bowyer & Macguire ? 2
Reading some of the speeches, by them & others,
I should feel if I had to hear them, " woe is me
as I am constrained to dwell in these tents of
Kedar!"

At present you all, Gladstone & Herbert & all,
seem working famously together, & Lord John's
speech is far beyond what I had expected.

Would it be possible that a subscription should be
set on foot, for national defences ? such as " steam-
rams " &c., the existence of which cannot be construed
as offensive ? 3

1 The news of the Treaty of Villafranca had just been
received, which dashed the hopes of Italian patriots to the
ground, as it practically reduced the results of the war to
the expulsion of the Austrians from Lombardy for a time.
The Tuscans issued a proclamation that they would never
again submit to the yoke of Austria.

2 They delivered speeches on our policy with regard to Italian
affairs, the subject having been introduced in a lengthy explana-
tion by Lord John Russell.

3 The success of the French arms in Italy revived the in-
vasion panic in England, and various schemes for defence were
proposed.

147

Letters of Edward Lear

119, MARINA,

ST. LEONARD'S ON SEA

Sept. 2nd 1859.

. . . All the little time I have away from painting
goes in Greek. Would you believe it, & TroAujuox^V
Undersecretary for the Colonies, I am nearly half
through OiStVoue ITTI KoXovoi 2 yes, and understand it
well too. I am almost thanking God that I was
never educated, for it seems to me that 999 of those
who are so, expensively and laboriously, have lost all
before they arrive at my age and remain like Swift's
Stulbruggs cut and dry for life, making no use of
their earlier-gained treasures : whereas, I seem to be
on the threshold of knowledge, and at least have a
long way to the chilling certainty which most men
methinks should have, that all labour for light is vain
and time thrown away.

119, MARINA. ST. LEONARDS ON SEA.

Septbr. 2. 1859.

I feel a kind ol placid sort of progress here, where
no one hardly interrupts me, a kind of feeling like a
snails belly-crawling existence. F. Lushington came
over one day & night, & that was a vast pleasure.

George Middleton, 3 Col. Leakes4 nephew, camefrom
Dover : & my old friend Anthony Chester's daughter
called to-day. The sisters of Sir John Potter live
at Hastings, & I dine with them or at the Martineaux,5

1 " Much labouring." 2 " Oedipus on Colonies."

3 Son of Admiral R. G. Middleton.

4 Colonel W. Martin- Leake.

s R. B. Martineau, the painter, a pupil of W. Holman Hunt's.

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Rome Revisited

on Sundays, at which latter house Holman Hunt is
staying. And I suppose Fowler l may come to-
morrow, & the Fortescue I hope in a week or two.
My life is this : wake at 5^ & rise & work till 8 :
at which time Helen, a distant relation of Mrs.
Menelaus, gets breakfast ready. I like Helen very
much as a handy little housemaid. Then I work,
writing a little Greek first, till 1 1 (Eire) newspaper : &
pretty interesting it is now-a-day's ! after which work
till two. Eat, (and if possible, digest,) a triangular
bit of cake, & then work again till 6J. Then walk
till 7J when I return & dine, generally on a tabular
& durable but not soft piece of beef, with a jug of
table beer. (For a long time I fed on an immense leg
of mutton, far, far larger than any leg of mutton I
ever saw before or since. But one day I remembered
that I had gone to the window to see a Circus Com-
pany go by, & attached to that there was an Elephant :
and then the horrid recollection that the Circus had
long since returned, (I saw it pass by) but the elephant
never had. From that moment I felt what that large
leg of preposterous mutton really was, " e non mangiar
avante " 2 & on the whole I do not recommend dead
elephant as daily food.) After dinner I do Greek till
ten & then go to bed. At meal times I read. And
just now am reading a curious book which interests
me a good deal, & in some things would you also, all
the more that the first part of the life of the

1 D. Fowler, a Canadian friend and artist.
* "And I did not eat any more."
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Letters of Edward Lear

Authoress, 1 (a Gal ton & Gurney), passed at Great
Barr Hall : F. Scotts. The Lady Scott is I suppose,
Sir Francis' grandmother. This book " Life of Mary
AnneSchimmelpenninck," has many curious anecdotes
of the people of the end of the last century, & to me
is peculiarly amusing, as bringing back much of my
early life. The amount of confused enthusiasm &
splombonglified religion is twaddly at times, yet throws
a light on some parts of the lives of a great mass of
ones countrymen & women : a sort of wide narrow-
ness, so to speak : at least, Mrs. M. A. Skimmywiggle
was as wide a Xtian as can be found in that lot of
sectarians. Besides this I read various other books :
Volney to wit, which I have read before, & which I
shall not send to my sister Ann certainly.

Of pictures the two for Mr. Potter (Athos & Corfu)
are all but done : & will be when you come. The 2
for Mr. Edwards Corfu & Petra theatre, are far
advanced, & look well : yet such is my nature, that at
times I perceive them to be quite bad & useless &
never to be completed, whenever ruin & debt arise in
perspective & the bars of a prison instead of a familiar
gridiron of cheapcooking. The other two, Campagna
acqueducts (for Mr. Heywood) & a large Eastern Cliff
of Petra for T. Fairbairn, are less advanced. The
Judaea journal goes on, but as yet I see no way to its
publication with illustrations.

1 Hankin's " Life of Mrs. Schimmelpenninck " was published
in 1858. She was a daughter of Samuel Galton of Birmingham,
and after her marriage with a Dutchman, became a Moravian.

150

Rome Revisited

I hope you will work, have worked, & are working
& shall be about to have been working, colonially :
I hope to see you Col. Sec. one of these days, if you
work that is not because you are on the steps of the
ladder & should therefore gradually get to the top. But
I shall hope to see you here for you would also like
this place. But let me have a day's notice that I may
get you some Elephantine food and adamantine beef.

119. MARINA, ST. LEONARDS ON SEA.

7. Sept. 1859.

You are a blessing to your friends, & would be to
your enemies if you had any, which I suppose you
haven't. However, you will be still more laudable if
you come down. I shall work horribly in the hope of
seeing you on Saturday. You shall have some soles,
a leg of mutton, & some varicose pudding of some
sort. Will sing immensely. Mr. & Mrs. Fuller are
gone, & you shall sleep in her bed, which is a much
better one than can be got at a nin. I shan't ask
Lord C. Hamilton 1 or the " Abercorns," or Lord
Jocelyn, 2 who are here : because perhaps they would
not come.

My dear boy : I don't want any money & fresh
borrowing would only distress me more. I am thought
wrong by some for want of independence in ever
borrowing at all, but, I am sure that is not a right

1 Lord Claud Hamilton, M.P., brother of the Marquess of
Abercorn, and brother-in-law of Lord Proby.

2 The third Earl of Roden, Auditor-General of the Exchequer
in Ireland, and Gustos rotulorum of the County Louth.

Letters of Edward Lear

view of things, for my whole life from 14 years has
been independentissimo, & on the other hand, the
man who will not put himself under obligation of any
kind to even the friends who entirely sympathize with
his progress nourishes in my opinion, a selfish &
icicle sort of pride. It is as much a pleasure to me
to own that I have been helped by you, J. Cross, J. B.
Harford, 1 S. Clowes, W. Neville, & B. H. Hunt, as
it is to look back on the fact of my having repaid (in
most cases, & to be so in all,) what was lent me in
money ; I have no wish whatever to shake off the
moral acknowledgement of given assistance.

I see, in spite of Fibbenson Gorgias's offer, a certain
Herbert 2 has been named Secretary. I see Storx
has prorogued the Ionian parliament.

I had a nice letter from good merry Morier yester-
day : a cheerful & nice fellow : but I don't wonder
he don't like Berlin waav Vienna.

What do you think of Rome ? Macbean has gone
or is going back, & takes Mrs. M. saying that proves
he considers quiet ahead. But if this Pesaro battle 3
fall out for the Italians, the Holy Fathers will certainly
be uncomfortable.

1 John Battersby Harford, afterwards of Blaise Castle,
Gloucestershire, who married the third daughter of Baron de
Bunsen.

2 R. G. W. Herbert was appointed Colonial Secretary to
Queensland.

3 The pontifical army of mercenaries had made Pesaro their
headquarters, and were said to be preparing for an attack upon
Romagna.

152

Rome Revisited

Is Newton l gone to Rome yet ? I shall ask you for
a letter to him if as how you knows him.

119. MARINA. ST. LEONARDS-ON-SEA.

21. Octbr. 1859.

Returning from seeing my beloved parent, (Holman
Hunt,) safe to the Railway, I find your letter, together
with one from J. Harford, a highly friendly concatena-
tion of correspondenx.

And being so cold just now I can't go to bed, &
yet am only half awake, I shall endeavour to scrawl a
line to thank you for your last, & to epopsimate the
fangropunxious feelings of my buzzim.

To-day came a letter from my sister Ann, telling me
of some from New Zealand. Sarah is on her way
home : & her leaving the Warepa seems to me a
sort of signal of break-up in her family, added to by
my nephew's wife's illness, one of increasing incura-
bility it appears to me, and which I suppose has
very much altered their views & plans. It seems
that they have let their so increasingly prosperous
farm, & that my nephew has got a situation of 200
a year at Dunedin, "under Government," is all they
(or rather my sister Ann,) mention : while the other
sister and her husband leave N. Zealand altogether.
This does not seem to me a grand conclusion to the
7 years stay there of the Street family, but I suppose

1 Mr. (afterwards. Sir) Charles Newton the archasologist, of
British Museum fame. He had just been appointed Consul at
Rome.

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Letters of Edward Lear

the departure of my energetic sister, & the illness of
my nephew's wife, have brought it about.

As for poor Mary & her unpleasant husband, they
have gone to Melbourne, & I hope will get a letter
sent by a brother of his, well to do, in St. Louis, ask-
ing them to go to America : where I think poor
Mary would be at rest, for her brother-in-law married
one of her earlier friends. Mary writes of Sarah, 1 " It
was very strange to see how Sarah did all the work of
the house & farm after Sophy was taken ill : for 4
months she did really every actual thing except the
washing : bread daily made for all 7 in number,
butter-making, cooking, & all the cleaning up, besides
always hearing the little girl's lessons : and yet she
was always dressed at 4 o'clock, & had the evening for
writing reading or music." To which sister Ann adds,
" my dear, Sarah is a wonderful woman ! " And she
ain't far wrong, as to energies at 66.

I have sent you a long scrawl of family talk, but I
know it won't bore you. You are a very queer
Secretary of State, who don't get altered by your
conditions & positions, as far as I can see, nohow.

My kind respects to Mrs. Ruxton : also remem-
brances at Ravensdale. Quite distinct from all these
give my love to Dr. Cullen, 2 if you see him, and to
Dr. Gumming 3 also : I take it, two nasty yet

1 Sarah was Mrs. Street, and Sophy the daughter-in-law.

a The Archbishop of Dublin, a Roman Catholic of the extreme
party.

3 A minister of the National Scottish Church, noted as a
prominent controversialist.

154

Rome Revisited

approximate extremes. O dear me ! there is a good
deal to say about my picture of Bassse J & many more
mompophlious matters : but the dim lamp wanes : the
dark sea moans & roars, and it is time that I should
go to bed. Good-night.

These are the most bestest lodgings I've been in
for a long time.

15, STRATFORD PLACE, OXFORD STREET,

qth November

O! Mimber for the County Louth

Residing at Ardee !
Whom I, before I wander South

Partik'lar wish to see :

I send you this. That you may know

I've left the Sussex shore,
And coming here two days ago

Do cough for evermore.

Or gasping hard for breath dc sit

Upon a brutal chair,
For to lie down in Asthma fit

Is what I cannot bear.

Or sometimes sneeze : and always blow

My well-develloped nose.
And altogether never know

No comfort nor repose.

All through next week I shall be here,

To work as best I may,
On my last picture, which is near-

-er finished every day.

1 A great picture of this subject by Lear is in the Fitzwilliam
Museum at Cambridge, subscribed for and presented by his
friends.

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Letters of Edward Lear

But after the thirteenth (that's Sunday)

I must if able start
(Or on the Tuesday if not Monday,)

For England's Northern part.

And thence I only come again

Just to pack up and run
Somewhere where life may less be pain,

And somewhere where there's sun.

So then I hope to hear your ways

Are bent on English moves
For that I trust once more to gaze

Upon the friend I loves.

(Alas ! Blue Posts I shall not dare

To visit ere I go
Being compulsed to take such care

Of all the winds as blow.)

But if you are not coming now

Just write a line to say so
And I shall still consider how

Ajoskyboskybayso.

No more my pen : no more my ink :

No more my rhyme is clear.
So I shall leave off here I think

Yours ever,

EDWARD LEAR.

156

CHAPTER VI
December, 1859, to March, 1861

ROME AND A WINTER IN ENGLAND

HPHE Treaty of Villafranca was signed at
* Zurich on the nth of November, 1859,
and it was proposed to hold a Congress of
European Powers to settle the affairs of Central
Italy. This, however, was rendered impossible
by the publication of the famous pamphlet,
" Le Pape et le Congres," which was inspired
directly by the Emperor himself, advocating
the abandonment by the Pope of all his
temporal possessions except Rome. Austria
was so offended that she refused to attend the
Congress unless the French Government dis-
claimed the views put forward in the brochure ;
but this they refused to do.

Lear to Fortescue.

HOTEL BRISTOL, MARSEILLE.

26. Decbr. 1859.

I shall write a scribblebibble from here, so that
you may feel it borne in upon you that you are

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Letters of Edward Lear

a letter in my debt, & so that I may the sooner
hear from you in the Holy City, where, selon the
Times, we are all to " pray, & dig in the ruins,
and contemplate, & study art, and pray over again."
Which reminds one that the " Brochure " (of course
you have read it by this time,) is making a sensation
in all France not to be conceived. The whole railway
libraries are full of copies, & every tenth person
seems to buy one. And the eagerness with which
the Reviews of it are read is wonderful. It seems to
be quite understood as the Emperor's policy or will
made public, & I have heard from some who have
known a good deal from being with his train all
through the Lombard battles, that it is believed that
he has fully decided on throwing over the Clerical
party, & leaning on the Military only. The tightest
screw is put on the press organs of the former, so
this does not seem improbable. Surely the Cardinal
A. 1 will hardly have a pleasant voyage, " knowing
all his own mischance, with a seasick countenance," &
perhaps reading the " Brochure " between vomitings.

My own doings hereto have been most fortunate :
Thackeray was on board the Folkestone steamer,
and the weather was propishous. The great man
was very amiable & gave me No. i. of his new
magazine, "The Cornhill." Also I heard, the night
I got to Folkestone, & saw in the papers that
Mrs. S. G. had eloped with her fuliginous footman
& was to be on board next day, a report which

1 Antonelli, the Cardinal Secretary of the Papal Government.

Rome and a Winter in England

shocked me, as I know the S. Gs. I was therefore
pleased on the 23rd. to find that the lady was
Mrs. J. G. which I did not care about & which
her footman was white & she carried a small spaniel
in her faithless arms. At Paris I went to the Hotel
du Grand Louvre, & never was so comfortable in
Paris before, which the service & the beds & the
cooking were all good. At 8 on the 24th. P.M., I
set off hither, & arrived here before 4 yesterday, this
being also a most good little Hotel & new to me.
Lo ! on the dinner table there was roast beef, turkey
& a plumpudding. There are some vulgarry people
here going to Rome, & a capital military doctor from
India, who I wish was going but aint.

In the rail yesterday was an intelligent man going
to Cannes, I do not know who. He told me some-
things that interested me, viz. that the successor of
Saunders, 1 a firstrate consul for so many years in
Albania, is one Cathcart ; 2 whom he describes as a
man of family & interest, but speaking no language
but his own, & looking on Prevesa as an exile and
thereby still lingering in London. I could not but
agree with him that the neglect of our consulships is
a far more dangerous evil to the English name &
commonwealth than is cared to be considered, & that
the opposite system with our neighbours here is one

1 Sidney Smith Saunders (knighted in 1873) was appointed
Consul-General in the Ionian Islands on their cession to Greece
in 1864.

* Major Andrew Cathcart.

159

Letters of Edward Lear

of their greatest implements in that success no one
can deny them as daily increasing all over the world.
I know it would be said that a public school for lan-
guage competition & consular qualities would not be
tolerated in England, as being ostentatiously conducive
to the spread of foreign convictions as to our wish for
" overrunning the world " &c. &c. But surely some-
thing like a better system might gradually be attained
to if it were fixed that 2 or more secretaries should be
attached to each consul generalship, with a view to
education in the lingo & manners of the countries, so
as that the head being removed, one of the secretaries
should succeed !

Thus, Wood, 1 undeniably the complete Consul-
general in all points, being sent to Tunis from
Damascus, after years of perfection in Arabic, in
knowledge of the country & its people, & in general
influence, why should the place of such a man be
filled by an excellent old man from Erzeroum, 70
years of age, & not knowing a syllable of Arabic ?
Or that Saunders, the beau ideal of activity & zeal, &
knowing Greek & Turkish for years, should not be
followed by at least one who has some portion of his
mantle ! I grant that Wood is good for Tunis, &
that Saunders is good for Alexandria, but why fill up
their posts by haphazard, & thus undo all that has
been done for years. Both in Damascus and Albania
now, a good French Consul could prevent our position

1 Sir Richard Wood was Consul-General at Tunis from 1855
to 1879,

160

Rome and a Winter in England

in trade & influence from ever becoming what it has
been. (Moreover, if you want illustrations of the blind
fool-system, I do happen to know that the Gov.
offered Saunders the Consulship of a place in S.
America ! so fit to bring out the talents used for 30
years in the Levant !)

I do not think anyone Gov. is chargeable with
these defects, but the whole system should be changed
& revised. Could you not set about such a plan, by
a pamphlet or private influence, calling public or
Government interest to the subject, which I think
you would agree with me, is one of very great
importance. I suppose however, you have but little
time yourself, but you might tread on Lord John's
toes or bully Lord P[almerston].

Let me hear from you as often as you can. I am
in horrible misery just now, remembering a brutal
letter I wrote you just a year ago. My sins are
always like chronic fever, which return at stated
intervals, or rather like pains in amputated feet,
which are felt after the limb is long removed.

9. VIA CONDOTTI. ROMA.

6. Janry. 1860.

(loth. Janry.)

In vain is the net spread in the sight of any bird,
which means obscurely that this sheet was begun to
be written on directly I got your's of the 28th. Dec.,
but although that blank paper has laid on the table
ever since, the bird has never settled on it. All

161 M

Letters of Edward Lear

things go on as before the fathers fell asleep. But

Lord! wouldn't the fathers or anyone else fall
asleep here now! You never saw such a desert!
there are only 200 or 250 English here par example,
instead of 1800 or 2000: & the streets are literally
empty.

The whole atmosphere of social & moral life is
indeed a painful mess of bad, and doubt. Yet I can
give you no light as to future nor could anyone.
Things are so much more equally balanced here than
in any other part of Italy that it is more than doubtful
what might happen here even if the French troops
were withdrawn. For you can imagine, fools &
empty as they are, all the Roman nobles are so
linked by blood and interest with the present
Government that they certainly would not join any
attempt at a new system of things, and again, the
middle classes are also, thro' centuries, partly tied up
in the same boat : and the whole mass is such a
stagnation of pride & ignorance & superstition that

1 believe, if God Almighty were to come down
Himself, they wouldn't have a single benefit from
Him if He were not a " Roman." On the other
hand, I hear from some who know how things are,
that a great portion of educated men advocates
etc : would raise a new standard, and would depend
on external aid. This may be : I cannot tell ; & I
never enquire or politicalize a bit, for that wouldn't
do here at all.

One thing is sure, the violence of the clerical or

162

Rome and a Winter in England

extreme Tory party is intense, which looks as if they
feared a good deal. And the way in which the high
Church idiots here curse the revolutionary folk &
weep for the P[ope] is a thing to laugh at or be
disgusted with. Intanto a complete constraint &
gloom pervades all the city &, inasmuch as I hated
it last year, I do so now a thousandfold more for its
odious false anti-human reason atmosphere. Giorgio
says, " almeno in Gerusalemme si poteva vedere un
camelo morte e qualchi Arabi : ma qui non c'e
nulla." Fortunately for me, Dr. Kennedy l of
Shrewsbury school, Tyrwhitt 2 of C. Church, Oxford,
& one or more are here, & Newton the new Consul
also, who seems a nice fellow. If he has force
enough to set up this consulate on a new basis Vie
will do no little good to his countrymen : but, for
many causes he has no easy task,

(O dear me ! what a odd hurried boshy life it is ! all
fuss & so little rest ! " still from one trouble to another
thrown.")

The Ross's of Bladensburg 3 are here : I hear
they are very Papal but on a queer scent, viz :
Urquhartism & considering that L[ouis] N[apoleon]
is acting always under the Emperor of Russia!

1 Headmaster of Shrewsbury and the greatest classical teacher
of his day.

2 Richard St. John Tyrwhitt, known chiefly by his writings
on art.

3 David Ross of Bladensburg, of Rosstrevor, Co. Down, and
his wife, a sister of Viscount Massereene and Ferrard.

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Letters of Edward Lear

They deny the Perugia affair, 1 I am told, wholly.
L d Rendlesham 2 is the only peer & Lord Pollington,3
a peer's son ; no markisses, nor dukes, nor baronets,
nor nothing. Most of the Hotels are more or less
shut up, & the lodging houses also. The beggars are
ravenous & demonstrative to a fearful degree. Says
I to myself, glad I shall be, when I am free, O Rome
from thee, & over the sea, high diddledydee. I must
go to bed & finish this blessed epissel tomorrow.
Goodnight. E. L. . . .

Jan. ii. The class or caste of Artistes here have
always been in a queer position, with the exception of
one or two, I for one don't choose to go to swell
houses & stand against a doorpost & be stared at if
I speak, as used to be the case in some places :
which modes of life I have long given over. Your
Lady W[aldegrave], is after all the finest specimen of
a real woman in a swell place one knows of, & I
wish to goodness she was here, though you don't.
There would be talk enough for us two here for
weeks, & I wish horribly you could run over, but the
parliament won't let you, besides the Colonies.

Card. Wiseman is here, & such a nest of Bishops

1 In July, 1859, the people of Perugia expelled the Papal
legate, whereupon the Pope despatched a body of Swiss mer-
cenaries, who sacked and pillaged the place. There was a
great outcry, and a commission was held to inquire into the
matter.

a The fifth Baron, at this time a young man of nineteen.

3 Eldest son of the third Earl of Mexborough. Succeeded
to the title the following year.

164

Rome and a Winter in England

& Irish R.C.'s! (Dundalk Bowyer, 1 among the rest,
whom I might meet if I liked, but I hate the lot,
& go near none of them). Yesterdays talk is all
about the intemperate anger of the "Aytog narrjg, 2 who
absolutely blew up & bullied the Jews, on their annual
visit of congratulation, he being very sore just now
about the Mortara boy. 3 He is known to have laughed
& said "What! you are still hoping to get back the
boy ? " &c. &c. Cheer up, as the limpet said to the
weeping willow : & forgive me for not writing before.
Give my kindest regards, or however you may
word them, to Lady Waldegrave. In the depths
of my misery o,n board the Marseilles boat, when
I lost my head from excess of illness, I for a time,
continually saw the Punch & Judy at Strawberry
Hill, with the little children laughing, & Lady W.
in that browny grey =i= striped dress & little hat.
Moral : people as does kindnesses to others does

1 Sir George Bowyer. M.P. for Dundalk, joined the Church of
Rome in 1850, and became chamberlain to Pope Pius IX. He
built the church of St. John of Jerusalem, Great Ormonde Street,
Bloomsbury.

2 Holy Father.

a In June, 1858, a Jewish boy, Edgar Mortara, was forcibly
seized from his parents by order of Cardinal Viale Preta, Arch-
bishop of Bologna and Legate of Pope Pius IX., because it was
alleged that he had been baptized when an infant by a Roman
Catholic maidservant. Intense feeling was aroused throughout
Europe by the refusal of the Court of Rome to restore the boy,
in spite of representations from -the French Government and
a monster petition of Jews and of British Christians, headed
by the signatures of the Archbishops of Canterbury, Dublin,
and York.

165

Letters of Edward Lear

more than they think for to them as they knows
nothing about doing them for particular.

I wrote to ask A. Tennyson to come here, but
hardly think he will turn up : it would be the very
quietest year he could ever come in, & there will be
no row while the French are here. I had hopes of
coming to see somewhat of Newton the new Consul,
(of whom be it said he is a clever & sensible fellow,
& is putting the B.M's consulate already into a
respectable position, which it never has been before
in my time,) but he is collapsed into business, or daily
society, so that I have lost sight of him. The New
Zealand sister is expected in England every week.
Ann is for the present staying at my widow-sister's, &
I much wish that that arrangement may prosper
& abide, as I find that my brother-in-law left his
property all to his wife & uncontrolled. Are my four
Idylls songs published at Cramer's yet ? Dear me !
I think life is a great bore : particularly when the
chimney smokes, & one has a cold in the head.

Your Government seems pretty serene altogether,
& I greatly hope will stand fast. I thought Lord
P[almerston]s speech l very good. The priest party
here take the Q's speech mention of Italy as all on
their side : which is amusing : " I will not interfere
to prevent the Italians shaking off the tyranny of

1 A speech in answer to Mr. Disraeli, stating that the Com-
mercial treaty with France had been signed, and justifying its
provisions. Also vindicating England's policy of non-inter-
ference with regard to Italy

1 66

Rome and a Winter in England

rebels " they say it means. I saw a letter in the
" Times " of the 27th (strictly suppressed here in
public of course) which was certainly strong, but true
enough. It was written by Gallenga, who was sent
off by the police with a 3 days notice.

The most interesting person here is a Major
Reynolds, which was occupied in Bundelcund a
catching Thugs. His description of Thuggee is vast.
Also his sister is quite apart from the crew of fools :
seeing she reads Sophocles & Plato. Do you see
my dear old friend Colonel Leake is dead ? This
distressed me a good deal

9. V. CONDOTTI. ROMA.

22. March. 1860.

I am rather beshamed that I have not written to
you for so long : & you are a cheerful cherub to
send me the nice letter date I3th., which has just
been brought in by George, who says also " ertxeua&n
n iiravaffraOig" i alluding to what happened the night
before last, of which anon. You in truth go on
with wonderful " Abercombiness " & regularity, &
the day will come when you will be as 43 giants.

The "Echo" story is good. 2

1 u The revolution has been worked."

2 " Have you ever heard the story of the Echo of Villafranca ?
Here it is. After their peace the two Emperors, riding
together, came to a place among the hills where there is a
famous echo. France said 'Que chacun de nous appelle sa
femme' to try the echo. So they did. L. Nap. called
' Eugenie ! ' The echo answered ' Genie ! ' Austria called
' Elisabeth ! ' The echo answered f Bete ! ' " (Letter from
Fortescue to Lear, March 13, 1860.)

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Letters of Edward Lear

To pass to a public appointment which (for once,
you'll say,) is really creditable, the new Consul
here, C. Newton is a good and active man of
business a fine scholar, a gentleman, & of a kind
disposition ; he has already gone far to put the
British name, into a train of respectable repute. I
never can believe that dirty knives can be used to
cut clean good bread, & the bread not be thereby
injured. For years the R. C.'s have said, the
English consular agent is a fit & apt representation
of a base & bad nation : Now they are obliged
to alter their voice on the subject, & acknowledge
that the Q. is represented by a worthy & clever
man.

Mrs. Ross is still here, befussing herself about
politics.

We are all here in very disagreeable excitement,
& on Monday night that occurred which is not yet
wound up. It was G[aribaldji's birthday, & a festa
besides so that a considerable crowd walked in the
Corso 4 & 4 smoking, for this kind of demonstra-
tion is the thing now a days. The police (armed)
late in the day arrested two men who displayed nose-
gays of 3 colours, but, (this was in the Piazza. Colonna,)
some Ffrench] officers interfered, & the two men
were let loose. On which the Papal police retired
" green with rage." The Corso was full of people,
just at Avemaria, when they sallied out furiously, in all
about 60, & ran a muck the whole length of the
street to the P.del Popolo, cutting down & beating

168

Rome and a Winter in England

with buttend of pistols right & left. You will hear
all this denied by Lords Derby & Normanby, but as I
know those who know the names of J5 seriously
wounded now in Doctors hands, & as the poor
fruiterer opposite my friends died of his sword wound
yesterday, & as it is well known that altogether 70
or 80 were more or less hurt, you will excuse my
believing the aristocratic defenders of Italy as it is,
rather than my own senses. Among the wounded
were also a sergeant, & 2 French soldiers, & one
officer, son-in-law to one of the Generals. It is
impossible to give you an idea of the state the people
are in. But as many as 10 patrols in a body are
placed at every other street end all down the Corso, so
no movement is possible. Meanwhile Gen. Goyon J
has publicly praised the police " for obeying orders "
but a great mass of F[rench] Officers (it is said) have
declared that they "gave no orders." What is to
happen next chi sa?

Embrace Lord John. He is a duck. 2 What I
wish now is that Vpctor] E[mmanuel] may, with all
Italy, split from the old P[ope]. A few months must
decide now.

I met Odo Russell at Miss Cushman's at dinner
lately, a very extremely nice fellow. Browning was
there also, & told me a story of Carlyle which I shall
send you. C. on going abroad for the first time saw a

1 The General commanding the French troops in Rome.

2 On the i2th of March Lord John Russell entered into a full
explanation of the Savoy question.

169

Letters of Edward Lear

crucifix, & said calmly " Ah ! poor fellow I thought
we had had enough of him ! "

As for me I am at work on a heap of pictures 20 in

100 IOO 2OO 2OO

all : 2 of the Campagna, a Beyrout, Damascus, &

IOO

Interlaken, will be striking topograffic scenes, & I

hope to sell them on my return
to wise & wealthy wirtuous
wights for 700^ if possible.
If things get more ojous here, I
must leave earlier. The New
Zealand sister has arrived, after
just 7 years absence. I am very
glad for the sake of poor dear
Ann. Is H. Hunt's picture yet
wizzabel ? A jew, a jew, my
friend. I have become so fat
for want of exercise that you
would not know me, so I attach
a portrait.
Do you wear knickerbockers ? Don't you like

Tithonus ? Have you seen F. Lushington ? Do you

go to the Blue posts ? I must leave off like a

deleterious donkey as I am.

Yours affly,

EDWARD LEAR.

The American Consul narrowly escaped a sword
cut, & one Mr. Arkworth or Akworth also. Ugh !
The converts deny the whole thing with the most
impudent lying. Manning is preaching here, furious

170

Rome and a Winter in England

as a bear. He predicts the utter fall & decay of
England & the rise & triumph of Ireland, which he
says is the holiest country of modern days a fact, you
though a cussed heretic will be pleased to hear.

Concerning the waste of money involved in going
away, there were once two people who had each a leg
of mutton for dinner, but both were invited out. One
gave away his leg of mutton, but the other said " that
is waste," & ate it all up, whereby he was sick for a
week. Now you see I don't mean to eat up my leg
of mutton upon this principle.

It has been anything but an Abercromby winter to
me though : so much time thrown away by asthma,
& lethargy, for I cannot, HORRIBLE to RE LA TE,
rise before 7^ here. But I'll make up for lost time,
as the Tadpole said when he lost his tail & found
he could jump about.

We know less than nothing here : for they sup-
press the papers now. What will happen it is wholly
impossible to guess : though it is thought that General
L's mission x is rather in the interest of France than
Sardinia, that of the P[ope] being the ostensible cause.

V[ictor] Emm. of Turin will have a difficult task yet
to keep straight : & I can't but wonder at some of
Cavour's doings. I wish I had a chance of seeing
you in Ardee, but I shall trust to doing so often

1 At the beginning of April General Lamoriciere, who had
been a celebrated leader of the Zouaves, but who had been
expelled from France after the troubles of 1848, arrived in
Rome to take over the command of the Papal army.

171

Letters of Edward Lear

in Town. I wish the D. of N[ewcastle] had had

the sense to put F. Lushing-

ton into Merivale's place. 1 I

am surprised at M's going

away.

I am grown horribly fat from
want of exercise like this

At the beginning of May Lear left Rome for
good, and set out for England, having been
disappointed in his original idea of revisiting
Palestine and getting fresh subjects for his
pictures. Want of ready money, from which
he always suffered and to which he constantly
alludes in his letters, was probably the cause
of this alteration in his plans. In con-
nection with this I may mention, that he was
for ever making elaborate plans for travel,
which were constantly doomed to failure for
the aforesaid reason.

One of his first visits was to Nuneham, Mr.
Harcourt's place in Oxfordshire, to execute a
commission for two landscapes.

Lear to Lady Waldegrave.

Thursday, July, 1860 ?

DEAR LADY WALDEGRAVE, I have just sent off two
boxes and a Neasel which are to go by the next goods

1 Merivale, permanent Under Secretary of the Colonies, had
just accepted the Under Secretaryship of the India Office.

172

Rome and a Winter in England

train and to be left at Culham Station as addressed.
The foolish topographer will follow tomorrow by the
4.50 express. . . .

I am going to ask you if I may divest myself of the
duty of breakfast in the morning (save Sunday),
because, as I begin early, and the effect of light and
shade ceases at 1 1 J, the interruption of cleaning and
feeding at 10, will just cut up the best part of my
morning. Also, when in a state of application, or
incubation as it were, I am more or less necessarily
disagreeable and absent, and should certainly answer
" Elm trees and bridges," if they asked me whether I
would " take tea or coffee ! "

Directly after I finish my morning work, I should
willingly devour a sandwich, and go across to the
Church view, which I shall be able now to see very
well, as I can place my canvas on a lofty easel, I
myself standing on the green seat, thus :

173

15. STRATFORD PLACE, W.,

5. Sept. 1860.

I find, (since I saw the Fortescue yesterday,) that
my Sussex & Hampshire visits will keep me out of
London till the 2ist On the 22nd. therefore may I
come down to Dudbrooke & stay with you over the
Sunday ?

As for me I am working at all kinds of places,
Damascus & Bey rout, Masada & the Cedars of
Lebanon principally besides Bethlehem, Interlaken,
Philae, & the Roman Campagna. Identifying oneself
with all this various topography naturally makes one
less sane than usual, but at present my feelings are
tried more than commonly because I am at work in a
large room lent me by my landlord who is a portrait
painter, & his room is full of faces. The Rev. Jabesh
Bunting & Lady Mulgrave sit upon the walls of
Masada, Sir Fenwick Williams & Mr. Spurgeon peer
among the branches of my Cedars Mr. & Mrs. Cunard
of New York abound in the ruins of Philae, & the
Bishop of Gloucester is dominant in Interlaken. So
that I have a horrid fear that I shall hash all these
people up together in all my foregrounds.

Lear to Fortescue.

OATLANDS PARK HOTEL.

WALTON ON THAMES.
SURREY.

Sept. 30. 1860.

I really hope you will be able to come for Sunday
the 1 4th., for you would enjoy this place, if weather

174

Rome and a Winter in England

gets better, & by that time my Cedars will have
advanced a bit, I trust.

Yesterday only the big case arrived, but thanks to
the assiduous friendliness of one Mr. Lyle who has
built a huge house in the centre of Cedardom, I am
able to get the canvas set up allright, & actually
worked at it a good bit : The next neighbour to Mr.
Lyle also, a Mr. Hewitson who possesses the finest
collection of Butterflies existing, 1 pervades the place
with assistance & brings water-jugs &c. &c. freely.
I have hired a small boy, his name is " Norval " (on
the Grampian Hills his father feeds &c.) for sixpence
a day, wages to be raised to ninepence if good,
who carries folios, brushes &c., from the Hotel, for
this Hotel is only 5 minutes from where I go to paint,
so I hope all next week to get a-head.

But I will describe my life generally. The Hotel
then is a large & sumptiously commodious place, in
a part of the old Oatlands Park with nice broad
terrace walks, & a wonderfully lovely view over the
river Temms & the surroundiant landskip. Them as
likes private rooms, can have them. But, I & some
20 more live in public. I have a large light bedroom,
delightful to behold, & wanting for nought. Here I
rise, (to begin the day,) at 6, & by 6.30 or 6.45 am
at work on one of the seven drawings. At 8 I go
down-stairs, & from that to 9. breakfast audibly
in the public coughy-room, which is first-rate in
every particular. The Times, (oh how my stomach

1 This collection is now in the Natural History Museum.

175

Letters of Edward Lear

aches for Garibaldi ! ) & letters arrive also at that
hour.

Immejately after these facts, I go out to work,
(Friday it poured with rain, so I worked indoors,) &
by 6. I am back again. Dinner happens at 6.45. & is
well arranged & good : & what pleases me I can get
plain food. One pint of sherry, & one ditto of beer is
my liquor, & these are extras, all other board,
lodging, & service costing 4.4 a week. The company
is not bad, & rather amusing : some is permanent,
some changeful. Among the latter I trust are the
parents of a beastly little child, whom seeing playing
about, I spoke to simply as being attracted to all nice-
looking little children. Whereon the imp thus
accosted me :

" O my ! what an ugly chap you are ! " And what
ugly shoes you wear! "You must be a nasty ugly
old Scotchman ! " It is unnecessary to relate that I
turned away with ill disguised disgust from this offen-
sive infant, who cannot fail to bring his father's gray
airs to an untimely hend.

The only other person who has gone is a large old
lady, who the first night (Thursday,) I was here, came
slowly across the large reading-room, steadily looking
at me. When she had advanced within 3 feet of my
chair, I could bear it no longer, for I knew she would
do one of two things, either embrace me, or charge me
with a religious tract, so I rose up in terror. On
which she said in a loud voice, " Sit down Sir ! I only
came across the room to see if you was anyone I

176

Rome and a Winter in England

knew." To return to the Dining table, there is a
young Hussar who has been in French service,- &
later all through the Indian Mutiny : rather a nice
fellow, Irish, & knows the " Bellews " : A very well
informed & clever man, I conclude a physician : his
wife wears spectacles & seems literary. A grand dark
man, who says Hay? if ever I speak to him, (so I
have left off doing so) : & various other characters.
The head waiter is a praiseworthy individual, & his
efforts to make a goose go round 18 diners were
remarkable yesterday, as well as his placid firmness
when there was only one bit left, & 4 persons yet
unserved. " Who's this for ? " said an agitated
buttony boy, foreseeing the invidiousness of the task
set him. " HENNYBODDY ! " said the waiter in a
decided tone, & then coming to the three gooseless
persons, of whom I was one,

(Three were in such fortune cast
Of whom myself was left the last,)
he said in a conscientious & pained under-voice
" Gentlemen I am really sorry this has happened !
but I declare to you that there shall be another goose
to-morrow ! "

At 9. I go to my room, much to the disgust of the
community who having found out that I am musical,
consider my "seclusion" unpleasant. And so they
sent up a deputation 2 nights ago to ask me to come
down to them but I remained where I was. For one
hour, I translate 'H lloXtrcla, of my daily old Plato : &
for one more hour I pen out some remaining Athos

177 N

Letters of Edward Lear

drawings. And at n. I go to bed. There's a pretty
good history of life at the Oatlands Park Hotel.

STORY.

Scene, Railway Station, North of Scotland.
Persons : Old Scotchwoman and Railway Clerk.
Old Woman. " A Tucket."
Railway Clerk. " Whar till ? "
O. W. (with more emphasis). " A Tucket / "
R.C. (louder). "Whar till?"
O.W. (fiercely). " A Tucket, I say !"
R.C. (angrily). " Whar till then ? "
O.W. " You are a nasty speering body ! What
is't to you whar I am ganging to ? "

(Train draws up party of Old Woman's friends
call out " Jeanie ! Jeanie ! You'll be too late :
have you na got your tucket ? ")
O.W. " Na ! and I winna tell the old fellow whar I
am going ! What is it to him ! " (Train goes on.)

Lear to Lady Waldegrave.
STRATTON,

MlCHELDEVER.

October 23/60.

Since I was at Dudbrooke that exceedingly nice
youth the Count de Paris with his brother & the
Prince de Joinville r came to my studio & looked over

1 The Comte de Paris was the eldest grandson of Louis
Philippe. At the Revolution of 1848 his mother brought him to
England, and he grew up at York House, Twickenham, with his
brother, the Due de Chartres. The following year he went to

178

Letters of Edward Lear

lots of Nilatic drawings. They were pleased with the
drawings, & I with them for the two young men
particularly are really intelligent & unaffected.

I hope to send your two Nunehams l to Strawberry
very early next week I hope extremely that you will
like them.

I have been & am still painting Cedars at Oatlands
Hotel & I return there on November ist, for the soil
is so dry that at present I have neither Asthma nor
roomatizsim when I am there On the contrary I
have been making some new nonsenses in my old age
"still in our ashes " &c., (see overleaf).

Please remember me to Mr. Harcourt.

Lear to Fortescue.

THE OATLANDS PARK HOTEL.

NEAR WALTON-ON-THAMES.
SURREY.

7 day of Dec. 1860.

MY DEAR 4SCUE, Aaovroc TY]V Trig avyijc TT\V tTTtaroXTjv
<rou, (ovaag rt rje avyijc TOV TT/owrou pipovg Trig ri/j.ipag,) KOI
rrjc S/JKIJC <rov KaXwg tvpiGKOfjilvri, iyaiptaa TroXu. 'AXXa ot
fj.a\\ov %av/j,a<TOitv nva JUT) ttf oiKiav ivploKOvroq TOV
Trig TlapHTaiag, KaKitrrog 6 icatpog, KOI, (ovTwg cTrttv,)
avTov ore yvwpi%eiv waXa TOV Naw^rjyov ^SiiifJLwp, irtrj irpoTSpov
HaKpwg avfjnrepnraTovvTtov ETTI TT)V Trjg Pw/ULrig i^o\rfv, itttivov

TOTt (ffTOV TToXXtt IVfj) ^Wy/OO^EtWV floVV(i)V KO.I KaTaK\0)fJ,(jjV

America to serve in the Civil War, with his brother and the
Prince de Joinville, his uncle.

1 Two pictures painted in the grounds of Nuneham, Mr.
Harcourt's house in Oxfordshire. The pictures are now in the
possession of Lord Waldegrave.

1 80

Rome and a Winter in England

7roX<e OU<T>JC 1? Pt^ua roiavra /ne Karaorao-ete Ivroc
TTCjOtKoicXou, aXXa Se row Mt^eXou S?jjua)/3 ovroc tic rov
"AyyeXov 17 'A/o^ayyeXov TTOTTOTE avyyevtojg owre EtSataii', OVTE
a> i//euSae Xtytuv Suva/ieu : rfjf <rvoyou row, aXXa Et'Stjo-fe etvat
tm row 'IctTjOOu St'/o. r Q. Natrovou, (ocme 6 jSao-tXtvc rtajptoc
6 Tfocrajoroe TTJC 'AyyXta^ ES'E/oaTTtwS'r) juspticwv votrwv Xeyet i?

I had your letter this morning, (now the morning is
the first or earliest part of the day.) That you did not
find the Count de Paris at home was more surprising
that the weather was so wet, &, so to speak, I may add
that I myself also once knew Admiral Seymour 2 very
well, having made at one time long excursions on the
Campagna of Rome with him, he there occupying
himself with drawing views of mountains & vallies :
for Rome is a city abounding with objects of that sort
within a small circle, but that this Michael Seymour
was anyway related to the angel or Archangel I can
neither certainly state nor yet positively deny : although
it is well known that his wife was a daughter of the
Physician Sir W. Knighton by whom report says
George the 4th, King of England, was successfully
treated.

1 " When I received your sunrise letter (sunrise is what the
Greeks call the morning) and found your enclosure all right, I
was very glad." Lear has translated the whole letter in the
paragraph following, so with the exception of the first sentence
no further translation is required.

a Sir Michael Seymour won special distinction in the troubles
with China in 1857, when he destroyed the Chinese junk fleet
and captured Canton. In 1858 he forced his way up to Tient-
sing, and a treaty was signed.

181

Letters of Edward Lear

Bother Thucydides.

A letter from Rome this morning brings me a
"quittance" from the " Fratelli Spillman" my late
landlord, putting an end to my lodging treaty, The
compliments they pay to my "high & renowned
qualities " & to my " superior nature " have made my
stomach ache : tho' I am very glad the Roman affair
is done with.

I wish I could hear from poor Giorgio.

Write soon. And don't get in the way of those
odious Donaghue maniacs I : I said little about them,
for I hate the whole lot so much I can't keep my
temper on the subject.

Don't forget my messages to Mrs. Ruxton, & Chi, &
all who know me "a blessed privilege" as Mrs. H.
says.

I do not think the picture (Bassse) is to be pre-
sented by the subscribers, as they say that won't do
for a precedent, but by a certain lot of Trinity Coll.
fellows.

15. STRATFORD PLACE.
OXFORD STREET.

Thursday 7. March. 1861.

You will be sorry to hear that my dear sister Ann is
extremely ill. Although she was here last week, as
I told you on Sunday, she has had a relapse of her
internal complaint & some alarming symptoms are
showing themselves. Besides this the poor dear has a

1 The O' Donaghue, the member for Tipperary, was one of the
leaders of the extreme section of the Roman Catholic party in
Ireland, and an ardent supporter of the Papal claims.

182

"Once upon a time a bird was ill, and a cat, bending down to it, said, 'How are you, and what do you
want? I will give you everything, only get well.' And the bird replied, 'If you go away I shan't die.' "

To face page 182.

Rome and a Winter in England

dreadful swelling in the back of the neck, which con-
tinually increases, & which the Doctor fears may turn
to Carbuncle. The two illnesses together will I dread,
be more than at her age she can rally from, nor do J
quite think she would undergo any operation, which
the Doctors hint may be expedient. Her medical man
sent for me last night, & I have seen her. Poor dear
creature, her sufferings are very sad, yet she is absolutely
cheerful & tranquil, & speaks of dying as a change
about to bring such great delight that she only checks
herself for thinking of it too much. She has always
been indeed as near Heaven as it was possible to be.

I have written for both my sisters : the widow
comes to-day.

You may suppose I am greatly distressed at this,
tho' at present I do not fully realize the whole.

I heard from Lord Clermont to-day. I had thought
it right as I had before written about the Civitella,
to tell him it was sold, Sir Francis Goldsmid ' pur-
chased it on Monday : for 1 50 guineas, which you
also will be glad to hear.

Penrhyn 2 died yesterday morning. Leycester P.
wrote to me yesterday but, altho' I wish to go to the
funeral, my sister's state of health may prevent me.

1 The first Jew called to the English Bar, and the first Jewish
Q.C. and Bencher. President of the Senate of University
College, London.

8 Edward Leycester took the name of Penrhyn in accordance
with the will of his cousin, Lady Penrhyn, whose property he
inherited. He married in 1823 Lady Charlotte Stanley, eldest
daughter of the thirteenth Earl of Derby.

183

Letters of Edward Lear

The death of his sister on nth March, 1861,
was a great blow to him.

ANGEL HOTEL, LYMINGTON.

1 8. March. 1861.

MY DEAR CHICHESTER, I write this, more to thank
you for your's than for ought else.

I went to Oatlands after the funeral ; but have
come to-day to this place, hoping to get to A. Tenny-
son, but there was no steamer.

I am all at sea & do not know my way an hour ahead.

I shall be so terribly alone.

Wandering about a little may do some good perhaps.

Yours affectionately,

EDWARD LEAR

CHAPTER VII:.;,!
1861

ITALY AND SWITZERLAND

" I "HE death of his eldest sister, who had
A- been like a mother to him for so many
years, and to whom he had always been deeply
devoted, affected Lear's health and spirits to so
great an extent, that he welcomed the oppor-
tunity given him by Lady Waldegrave of
going to Italy, in order to execute her com-
mission to paint a picture of the view from the
celebrated Villa Petraja of Florence. Stopping
at Turin on his way there, he mentions that he

waited thro' Sunday for the fete, well worth
the delay and I saw Vpctor] E[mmanuel] quite
closely, as well as all the milingtary specktickle.
We all of us, however, little thought then that the
merry days would be so soon clouded by Cavour's
death. 1

1 The news of Cavour's death on the 6th of June plunged
all Italy into mourning.

185

Letters of Edward Lear

On June 8, 1861, he reached Florence,
whence he writes :

There has been a row of a small kind here, the
people being angry that some reactionists appeared on
C[avour]'s death being known with Austrian orders,
etc. The mob tore the orders off, and Corsini had
to run for it into the Duomo till the N. Guard came.
Moreover, in the Corpus Domini, the Priests turn
away the Host from the soldiers, who kneel. The
priest party seem as blind as such fools usually are !

And on the 24th

Things are very unsatisfactory in many ways.
Certain people are positive that the I[sland] of
S[ardinia] will be given up shortly to follow N[ice]
and S[avoy]. r

It does not seem clear to me that there may be
a reaction strong enough to bring back the K[ing]
of N[aples] 2 and perhaps the G[rand] D[uke], but
if anything is clearer it is this, that their return
would end, as in the case of the Stuart restoration,
in more distinct revolution, and more absolute exile.

Meanwhile he set to work in earnest on the
Petraja picture, though still far from well either

1 In March, 1860, Savoy and Nice were ceded to France in
return for her services in helping to free Italy.

2 In September of the previous year Francis II. of Naples, a
ruler as bad as his father, had been driven out of his kingdom
by Garibaldi.

1 86

Italy and Switzerland

bodily or mentally, for he was suffering from a
severe internal sprain, and had just received
the news of his sister Mary's death at sea, on
the voyage back from New Zealand

Early in July he started on a tour northward
through Italy to Switzerland, visiting Lucca,
Pisa, Via Reggio (where he made a drawing
of Shelley's burial-place), Pietrasanta, Massa,
Carrara, and Sargano, reaching Spezzia on the
1 4th. Thence he went to Genoa on his way
back to Turin, where he says:

I have been trying to draw the Alps, but they,
like Sarah in Abraham's tent, have hidden themselves.
So I took a fit of Protestant enthusiasm and rushed
off to the Vaudois vallies, which are very interesting.

And with regard to the political situation

The Turinese have been a-saluting the Swedish
Ambassador with a serenade, and cheering him
immensely. I fancy the other side are by no means
giving up hopes of upsetting matters yet but with
Cialdini at Naples l they will find themselves sold.
" One struggle more and we are free," as the song
says. But that the Priesthood can ever be where

* On the I3th of February General Cialdini, head of the
Piedmontese army, took the fortress of Gaeta, the last strong
hold of King Francis II., and then went to Naples as Lieut.-
Governor for the civil administration of the country.

187

Letters of Edward Lear

and what it was only very shortsighted folk can
suppose. I wish I had heard Ricasoli's I speech on
Sunday, at the Inauguration of C. Alberti's statue.

From Turin he went to Courmayeur and
then to Aosta. Crossing the St. Bernard to
Martiny, he proceeded to Vevey

which is Paradise, and I don't see how the people
there and at Lausanne can have the impudence to
suppose that they can go to Heaven after death.

After visiting Ferney, Geneva, Chamounix,
and many other places, and filling his portfolio
with drawings, he returned to England at the
end of August.

Lear to Fortescue.

AOSTA. 28. July. 1861.

DEAR 4OSCUE, Je vois, (dans le Temps) que vous
vous portez en Irelande, e cessez d'etre Sectre. pour les
Colonies. 2 Faites moi savoir de vos nouvelles a

1 Prime Minister of the Government of the new Italian
kingdom.

2 A leader in the Times of July 22nd stated that Mr. Chichester
Fortescue was to succeed to the office of Chief Secretary for
Ireland, vacated by Mr. Cardwell, who was to be promoted to
the Chancellorship of the Duchy of Lancaster ; but this
information was incorrect, as Sir Robert Peel was appointed
Chief Secretary on the 25th, and Mr. Fortescue continued at
the Colonial Office.

188

Italy and Switzerland

Geneve Je vous prie ou je dois me trouver le
Sieme. Aout au plus tard. Est ce que vous serez
deja parti avant que je suis de retour, c'est a dire le

25, de ce mois ci?

Votre affly,

EDWARD LEAR.

119 MARINA, ST. LEONARD'S-ON-SEA.
SUSSEX.

igth. August 1861.

At present I am at work ferociously on the Petraja,
& I must say it promises well. I worked on the large
lemon trees in pots all yesterday, & to-day must fidget
over the houses all the long hours. No life is more
shocking to me than the sitting motionless like a
petrified gorilla as to my body & limbs hour after
hour my hand meanwhile, reck peck pecking at
billions of little dots & lines, while my mind is fretting
& fuming through every moment of the weary days
work.

Do you see the charge against Thirlwall l in the
Westminster ? T. having been attacked about his part
of persecution in the Essays & Reviews, 2 & being
asked how he could be so bitter when he himself
had written Schleirmachers Luke says in reply
" No ! not I, but a lawyer Thirwall wrote that
not the priest." (This it seems is true but it was not

' Bishop of St. David's.

2 A Liberal work published in 1860, by various authors. It
caused some commotion in the English Church because of the
alleged heresy of the views expressed. Professor Jowett was
one of the contributors.

189

Letters of Edward Lear

published till 4 years after T. was ordained : which
little bit of Jesuitry they now display to the orthodox
Bishop.)

Your remarx on Ardee interested me much : It is
indeed a different life for you. The prayers just
as they are you are quite right to read daily : dear
old Mrs. Ruxton means nothing but good, even
when she says the Athanasian Creed : It is not the
individual peculiarity of worship that grates on us,
so much as the public recognition of a hateful exclusion
principle.

Bye the bye this reminds me of Emily Miss
Beaufort's 2 volumes l which I think your Aunt
would like : the Miss Bs must be plucky singular
women, but there is too much enthusiasm & religious
zeal in Miss Emily for my taste, so far as I have got
in her book. Yet if she could help me at the Mount
of Olives in my large view of Jerusalem ! Think of
laying your head, my head I mean, after long long
hours of weary outline drawing not on the hard
bolster of the tent bed, but on an intelligent female's
buzzim ! I declare to you that the invitation to meet
them so near here at the Goldsmid's for 2 days sorely
puzzles me, tho' I believe I shall stick to my work
here & go nowhere even for the small chance of
future female buzzims & intelligent aid in outline.

1 " Egyptian Sepulchres and Syrian Shrines, including some
stay in the Lebanon, at Palmyra, and in Western Turkey," 1861,
by Emily Beaufort, the daughter of the distinguished geo-
grapher.

190

Italy and Switzerland

Let me hear what news you have of Lady W. I
believe she & Mr. H. have gone on a political
errand to Vienna, as his cousin to Perth. Ought
not Roebuck to be hooted, intanto, anent his Sar-
dinian Declaration ? :

Meanwhile, I have very few letters here as yet
& mainly from my sister Ellinor, who has other
letters from America, all wretched enough. I am
trying to send money to Frederick's family, but
Drummond says it is not to be done, all the more
that President] Lincoln has naw prohibited all inter-
course between the two sides. Fredk's only son has
joined the Southern army : Henry's 4 sons have
joined the North side, but it seems to me that Henry
from New York, looks as gloomily on the Northern
prospects as F. does from Springfield. I suppose
all my 5 nephews were in the last battle, a curious
state of unpleasant domestic romance. 2

From the Hornby's & Cross I have not heard,
& imagine they are at Dover, where not improbably
Lady Denison would go, as her sister-in-law Mrs.
Phillimore 3 would be there, & the whole Palmerstonian

1 At a banquet at Sheffield on August 2ist Mr. Roebuck
announced that he knew for a fact that a compact had been
entered into between the King of Italy and the Emperor of the
French, that the latter should have the Island of Sardinia so
soon as he withdrew his troops from Rome. This was after-
wards contradicted most emphatically by the French Press, as
well as by Baron Ricasoli.

3 The American Civil War broke out early in the year.

3 Sister of Sir William Denison and Evelyn Denison, Speaker
of the House of Commons. She married Mr. R. J. Phillimore

191

Letters of Edward Lear

spectacle x worth seeing & being part of. Nor does
Clowes write, perhaps in Norway : nor James
Edwards perhaps in the sulx.

My own life is I rise at six or 6.30. & work a
short hour before breakfast at 8. Bkft as slight as
possible 2 cups of tea, 2 bits of dry toast, 2 ditto
bacon, work till n : newspaper. Work again till
2. small bit of cake. work till 4. Dine, simple sole &
beneficial beer : work again till 7. wash brushes &
swear till 7.30. Prowl in the dark along the melan-
choly sea till 8.45. Bed at 9.30. For I am too
sad & tired by that time to work again. Bed
extremely uncomfortable like a plum pie turned into
stone. Lie awake & have the cramp & the side-ache
till morning. Then the "break, break, break," of the
sea gets me to sleep. I have a piano, but seldom
play. Housemaid vexatious &, a goose, wears
crinolines. Your Palgrave book 2 is very delightful :
every piece seems well chosen.

I must stop now. I am grieved at not coming
myself, but besides all the fuss aforesaid, I am not
well enough for a stay anywhere : the other day
you saw me in a lively fit from meeting you so
apropos but generally I am restless & glumy. I
think I shall take to drinking as a change.

(created a baronet in 1881), at this time Judge of the Cinque
Ports.

1 Lord Palmerston was instituted Lord Warden of the Cinque
Ports at Dover on the 28th of August.

2 F. T. Palgrave had just published his " Golden Treasury of
Songs and Lyrics."

192

Italy and Switzerland

Little Browning (7 or 8 years old) said to Lady
Normanby one day " I write poetry as Papa &
Mama do" "Oh!" said Lady N. "I thought you
seemed a very odd little boy but now I see there
are 3 incomprehensibles, not one incomprehensible."

5. Sept. 1 86 1.

I fully intended to have written to you on Sunday
being in a fretful state of mind at having disappointed
you by not coming, & myself by not going to Ire-
land : but when I had written 24 letters, I became
like unto a spawned salmon, & was exhausted, &
could work no more.

Concerning the buzzim of intelligence, I am dis-
pleased, (since I wrote,) with some of Miss Emily
Beaufort's J writing. She wonders forsooth, that there
is a traditional terror of the Cross or " anything
shaped like a cross " among the poor " ignorant
Jews " at Jerusalem ! Has Emily then never heard
of the Crusades, of the Spanish persecutions &
Inquisition, of St. Bartholomew, of all the Popes,
not to speak of Lord Chelmsford 2 & Mr. Spooner ? 3
If she has not, the Jews have, she may take her
davy.

1 Regarding this lady, Fortescue writes on the 3rd September :
" I wonder whether you want after all to meet the Beauforts.
My impression is that intelligent females who write books
are often disappointing. You can tell me whether my con-
clusion is correct."

3 Lord Chancellor in Lord Derby's Ministry.

3 Leader of the Anti-Maynooth party in the House of
Commons.

193 O

Letters of Edward Lear

Yes : I certainly do hate the act of painting :
& although day after day I go steadily on, it is like
grinding my nose off. The elder Morier has written
me a beautiful letter : he is so pleased with R.'s l
engagement: " der dikke" 2 albeit, is laid up with
gout : the 26th. is, it seems, the wedding day. The
elder Edwards wrote, asking for a succinct as to size,
age, place &c., account of the Cedars, which I sent :
some days later comes a Liverpool paper, giving a
notice of the private view of the Exhibition, "The
Cedars," being the great Lion & praised to the
skies the concluding paragraph being " Mr. Lear
has in this great picture not only achieved a pro-
fessional success, but he has also conferred an obliga-
tion of the highest order on the whole Christian
world "(MM! ! After that take care how you speak
or write to me.)

I have letters also from America : terrible alto-
gether. All chances are now shut up of farther
communication from Missouri, & even the 5^ I
have sent in a letter will probably never reach its
destination.

Bye the bye, some who know, or profess to know
Italy, declare that representative Govt. never will
succeed there, because they say it will become a
representation of advocates, & military only the
ingredient of Landed interest not being encouraged

1 Robert Morier, at this time attache at Berlin, married Alice,
the daughter of Lieut.-Gen. the Rt. Hon. J. and Lady Alice
Peel. Fortescue was his best man. a " The Stout."

194

Italy and Switzerland

or possible. Lever told me this, & said it was
Bulwer Lytton's opinion : (which perhaps made it
his, for Mrs. Lever is a relative.)
; I wish I could see you all at Rostrevor. You
are right to go & see the Flower-show, delilahs
high-derangers & what not. Do not be relaxed by
the climate if possible, leastways take some tonic :
dear me ! what good beef & beer there used to be
at Red House (not to speak of sherry).

21. Sept. 1861.

You are a kind good fellow to think of coming
down here on Thursday after Morier's wedding,
& I should be an "oomboog" if I said it wouldn't
please me. Only I wish you could have made the
journey on your way out of England, so as not to
have so long a giro to make on purpose to see the
dirty Landscape-painter.

; The New Zealand news is interesting : (I can't
make out if Sir J. Grey is arrived there yet.)
Christianity will extirpate the other race eventually,
(but then their souls may have been saved you know,)
as in the battle of races has ever occurred, when there
is greater power on one side than on the other ; and
I don't see much use in blinking the fact. I had a
long letter from Rome yesterday : among other
matters it appears curious to me that Pentini is
about to be made a Cardinal, (he is an upright &
liberal Catholic,) & it seems to me an indication
that the Holy See, perceiving that they must go

195

Letters of Edward Lear

with the stream, are about to make it easy (very
gradually) by allowing more of the liberal ingredient
to enter into the Conclave. But I do not think
anything very sudden will occur, as L[ouis] N[apoleon]
would abhor any general shudder in his own empire.
Grammont's recall is however considered as pointing
to a change. My informant, a very reserved person,
yet one who knows intimately all that goes on,
says " Of all the brigandage and reaction you hear
of, nothing occurs that does not directly emanate
from here." She speaks also of the Ex Q. of N.
as "the fastest of all young women, not to say
Queens."

V. Emmanuel at Florence is very interesting to me,
as I have now made the view from Villa Petraja all
but a reality, it seems as I sit hour after hour at work,
as if I could hear the vivas from the distance.

Holman Hunt writes very amusingly from Oxford,
near which he is painting in a field, but has been
discovered : & people send him out luncheons five
or six parties, & troops of ladies trudge across fields
with Albums for his Autograph.

The weather has often been lovely here, but is now
cold, & only fit for beetles & hogs.

15. STRATFORD PLACE.
OXFORD STREET.
LONDON.

ii Oct. 1861.

I had your letter this morning, which was pleasant,
coming as it did with two other pleasant letters ;

196

Italy and Switzerland

one from Emily Tennyson, on their return from the
Pyrenees; the other from Franklin Lushington, which
his Aunt Lady Murray l being dead, tin has descended
to him. But if you expect me to write well or much
you will find yourself disappointed : for at this par-
ticular juncture when every hour is full of worry,
daylight shortening, fogs unceasing, & pictures un-
finished at this inconvenient time I say two Danish
friends, & 5 Canadian cousins have simultaneously &
inopportunely turned up, to destroy my peace of mind
& call forth the innate amiable qualities of my nature.
For if I say " I am particularly engaged just now "
that would only seem a general excuse for showing
a cold shoulder to foreigners & interrupters : so
that I have made up my mind to go to Windsor
with the Danes, & Leatherhead 2 with the cousins
2 sublime sacrificial acts which in themselves are
somewhat, but beyond themselves involve seeking
tickets & arrangement by notes to no end of
botheration. I am glad you are enjoying yourself.
I ain't. And as for content, that is a loathsome
slimy humbug fit only for potatoes, very fat hogs,
& fools generally. Let us pray fervently that we
may never become such asses as to be contented.
Nevertheless I was sorry my last letter followed
you, as I dare-say it was disagreeable : which most
things are : & myself especially. But did you ever
have a beastly bore of a brother-in-law who perse-

1 Wife of the distinguished Judge.

3 Where "Sister Newsom" lived,

197

Letters of Edward Lear

cuted you for tin? If not you cannot enter into
my feelings just now.

Meanwhile I left St. Leonard's on the 3<Dth. Sept.
& went to Sir F. Goldsmid's for 3 days. Such a
nice house & pleasant people ! Such a distracting
Miss G. with such a face, like Mary Squeen of
Cotts ! So then I came back here, & am involved
in fog & very cursed filth. Yet to me London is
not hempty. Holman Hunt, Beadons, Bruce, Digby
Wyatt, 1 Bergmanns, Alfred Seymour, Terrick Hamil-
ton, 2 Fairbairn,3 Col., Hornby, & my 2 Godson's
families 4 are among those I see. And, very possibly,
the small dinners of highly intelligent or scientific
middle class friends are about the really best society
going, though you might not think so, as Diamonds
& Marchionesses hardly ever enter into these more
vulgar Kingdoms of Heaven, nor are Duchesses or
Princes frequent.

Bye the bye, there is a new spadmodic poet, by
name Swinburne who seems to amaze small circles.

The religious world bubbles & frizzes, & it is now
said that the Athanasian Creed is to be repeated
always before dinner in all Godly houses & some-
times afterwards also. One of the Hyaenas at the
Zoological Gardens is dead, & one of the Giraffes

1 The architect, knighted in 1869. He was secretary to the
Executive Committee of the Great Exhibition, 1851.

a Of Charters, Berks. Became M.P. for Salisbury, 1865.

3 Thomas Fairbairn, whom Lear often mentions in his letters,
was the eldest son of Sir William Fairbairn, the great engineer.

* Combes' and Crosses'.

198

X *

To face page 199.

Italy and Switzerland

has brought forth a puppy, I mean a calf, that is
a giraffino. And the Hippopotamice, have, (I regret
to say) attempted to reproduce ineffectually more
than once. A large & not- pleasantly-odorous dead
black cat has adorned our door steps for 5 days, bu
that is not wonderful, only sad. Thomas Woolner
the Sculptor r has taken a house in Welbeck St. &
Palgrave the poet has gone to live with him. The
wick of the lamp wanes, & I stop.

I2th October.

I can't add much now : The Petraja is finished, &
will be sealed up in its new frame on Monday.

This morning brings me one more dreadful letter
from Missouri, shocking to read, & preventing my
thinking of anything besides its ugly subject.

If you are really here by the ist. Nov., I most
probbbably shall see you.

2&th Oct. 1 86 1.

All the nonsense book, with 42 additional illustra-
tions are completed as woodcuts, & negrotiations
commence with a Buplisher next week. Maclean
also is to do a small work on the Ionian Isles so
pease an darmony prevale.

My elth is better : & I am, (at this moment,)
not quite so sleepy or savage as I was when I
wrote last.

(Arthur Stanley who visited Athos with W. G.

1 One of the seven original members of the Prae-Raphaelite
brotherhood.

199

Letters of Edward Lear

Clark, writes on a card " Athos beautiful & curious :
not classical enough for W. G. C., not ecclesiastical
enough for A. P. S.")

The buzzimless have been here for 4 hours :
I don't " cotton " to them. Patent, shiny, lacquer,
pimmy-puny, tic tic tic tic. They are however
ladylike, & plucky as travelleresses. I shall be
immensely delighted if Lady W. likes the " Petraja "
even half as well as some do. The garrulous
gardener however did not observe that I "sat " on
a "spot" to colour my plain & distance, but that I
"stood" on another "spot" to draw the whole.
Can the Hithihopian go for to change his spots?
Yea, but I am not an Ethiopian. O Lord ! cousins !
Canadian cousins ! Danish friends !

You will see Sir J. Graham 1 is dead : & Lord
Lansdowne 2 very ill. I think I shall stop now : it's
rather an amiable letter for me.

TRIESTE.

HOTEL DE LA VILLE
Sat. 16. Nov. 1861. 10. a.m.

I shall employ my last hours on earth, i.e. before
I embark on the oshun, in writing to you this
spot, a dry attic in the Hotel de Ville, being
perhaps better adapted for writing than Adriatic
waves would be.

1 The eminent statesman, who sat in eleven Parliaments, and
filled many great offices of state. From his debut in 1818 till
his death in 1861, he was one of the most important figures in
English political life.

3 The fourth Marquess.

200

Italy and Switzerland

Not but the day is as perfect & brilliant as any
poet might presume to be the perfection of perennial
Paradise.

All the traffic of Trieste is like gold & silver
set in lapis lazuli & emerald, & the air is as lovely
as the wision & spectacles .1 shall however, some
of the details concerning my sometimes but seldom
disagreeable, generally extremely pleasant, & always
filled with eventually tumbling down upon my legs
circumstances, journey from Folkestone to this place
to relate proceed. 1

First my voyage over to Boulogne was remarkable
as the only one out of some score made, which was
quite calm, & on which & of which I was not sick.
Moreover it was a pleasure to see that wonderful
old man Lord Brougham 2 who was also passing
over ; not but that he is greatly aged in appear-
ance, yet he is a wonder of a man. There was the
Hearl of Arrowby3 also. But what was more to
the point, was a young couple, Plumers, going out
to Injy with two delightful children ; said Plumers
having a letter from the Hornby s to the Denisons,
& being old friends of the Crakes & Penrhyns. At
Boulogne, where Lord B. examined all the Restaurant
& toddled about continual, the Plumers, speaking
no French, were bothered & I gladly helped them

1 Written on the principle of a German sentence intentionally.
3 He died at Cannes, seven years afterwards, where he had a
villa. At this time he was eighty-three years of age.
3 An eminent Conservative statesman.

201

Letters of Edward Lear

to a carriage, where jointly we all talked & nursed
the childer to Paris. There, not a bit ol luggage
was opened, & at i p.m. I got to the Louvre. Next
day 9th. I met with T. Wyatt, 1 my friend the
Architect, & appointed to do & see various things.
I went also to see one Chichester 4oscue supposing
he might be ill, but was glad to find he was better.
Wyatt & I dined sumptuously together, & by 8.30
next day, loth I was on my way to Strasbourg,
where I slept, as that train stops.

On the nth, Monday, at Kehl by 8 luggage
being all registered to Vienna. In the carriage was
a very lady-like elderly woman, who very amiably
assisted me in German : we however, talked French,
& for all the long journey I shall always thank the
good old lady who was one of the best informed, most
clever, largeminded, & charming individuals I have
met with of late. Eventually I came to know that
her son is Ambassador or Minister either at Vienna
or Paris, (his name being Wimppfen) : I suppose
from some Court such as Wirtembg. or Munich.
Please tell me if you know.

At Brucksal Madme. W. & I fraternized & dined
together. Beyond that our converse was disturbed
by a Servian Countess with an unruly boy whom
I took to task : the Countess had a suite of 5
persons whom it seemed to me she snubbed. At
Stuttgart, some ladies of the Queen were sent to
see Mdme. W. who had to speak of the K. & Q.

1 Brother of Digby Wyatt
202

Italy and Switzerland

&c whereon the Countess who understood all
tongues, thought fit to take her legs off the seat
& bully her boy into decent quiet, & to favour
Mdme. & me by several items of notice. Later
when Madame W. & I were talking of Corfu, she
suddenly calmly asked me if I knew a " famiglia
princepesca, chiamata Roma? la figlia maritata al
Governatore di India, uno Sir George Bowen tutti
parenti della principessa de Monte N. ? " l

By 10 we arrived at Munich, & the day having been
fine, it was great fun to see the country as well as
to be so well off for company. Tuesday i2th. I
was on my legs all day. I had no idea of the
curiousity and interest of Munich much as I had
heard of it. That a single man, (Louis, 2 ) should
have made such a capital is very extraordinary. At
the table d'hote 6. P.M. there were two Italians,
who, by my talking to some others, took me for a
Florentine but when the other lot went away,
hearing me speak English, asked me what country
I was of, & on my saying English, became very
communicative. I found that the man knew every
part of the South of Italy & he must have been
puzzled by my knowledge of all the families of the
Abruzzi & Calabria. I found he went to get
my name afterwards though that could not have

1 A princely family called Roma? the daughter married to
the Governor of India, one Sir George Bowen all relations of
the Princess of Montenegro ?

a King Louis I. of Bavaria, who was compelled to abdicate
in 1848.

203 m

enlightened him much : but I did the same towards
him, & discovered he was F[rancis] 2d's minister
to Bavaria, only just arrived !

At 10. P.M. off by rail : the dear old Wimpfennious
lady, a Phanariote Gk, & myself getting a Coupe" :
the Servian Countess & suite another carriage. Con-
versation in the coupe was carried on in English,
French, German, Italian, & Greek, & was very
amusing all night, especially a dissertation on
religion of which we 3 represented 3 forms I, in
the middle, acting as "buffer" to the 2 extremes
Orthodox & Schismatic.

At Salzbourg (3. A.M. i3th.) Austrian frontier:
luggage all gone on, no bother. Servian boy fell ill
& all the party had to stop. Perhaps I was hard
on the Countess, but she struck me as vulgar & a
spy. At Vienna by noon : an ugly noisy place
which I hate. I got all my luggage safely, and was
not bothered a bit : the one drawing of Jerusalem
acting on the feelings of the whole Douane.

On Thursday i4th off at 8.30 by alas a slow
train, for the quick trains now only go twice weekly
meantime there was more leisure to see the
wonderful Lemmeriz Alp well. Was horribly starved
for 23 hours as the brutal train only stops once,
& then for 15 minutes in the most awful crowd
impossible for a blind man to penetrate. So at
7.30. yesterday Friday I5th, I came to this excellent
Hotel : & I have since walked all about Trieste,
written letters to Dickinson & my sister Ellen

204

Italy and Switzerland

& a long one to my Godson's brother full of
advice worthy of Lord Chesterfield, Elijah, or
Kingsley : besides this to you. Which I pray you
reply to addressing to me at Corfu. I will write
also as soon as I get there.

But ah ! (the Landscape painter said,)

A brutal fly walks on my head

And my bald skin doth tickle ;

And so I stop distracted quite,

(With itching skin for who can write ?)

In most disgusting pickle

& merely sign myself

Yours affectionately.

Tell me when you have seen the new Book of
Nonsense. Routledge & Warne, 2 Farringdon St.,
will publish it, but it will make it more known to
advise it to be purchased at other booksellers.
Please recommend it all you can. I will write to
Lady W. soon.

205

CHAPTER VIII

1861-1862

Lear to Fortescue.

CORFU. Dec. ist 1861.

MY DEAR 4oSCUE, I have wished to write
before, but could not get settled enough to do
so. After I left Trieste, I had an abominable passage
hither : once we were on the point of putting back,
but finally we got here 20 hours after our time
on the 1 9th.

Everybody was overwhelmingly hospitable, from
the Palace downwards : but as the balls, & small
monotonous whist or tea-parties are wholly out of
my line in this very very very small tittletattle
place, & as moreover night walks from this side
of the City to the other don't suit me, not to speak
of late hours & a multitude of new & uninteresting
acquaintance, I decline all visiting on the plea of
health & antiquity or what not. The Woolfe's '

1 Mr. (afterwards Sir) Henry Drummond Wolfe was appointed
Secretary to Sir Henry Storks, the Lord High Commissioner, in
May, 1860, after the departure of Sir George Bowen.

206

Corfu

have very amiably asked me several times : they
seem very & justly popular ; but the only point
at which Greeks, Germans, French, Italians, &
English in such a place as this, can amalgamate
being balls & the smallest of gossip this tone of
social life bores me even more than total loneliness
tho' that is very bad for me I know : only the
alternative is wusser. The Sargents 1 seem nice
people, but they live remote. The Colquhouns 2
are remote & less nice by report. The Palace
is dull : no lady : the dinner there of 1 2 was as
all dinners are. The General is going, & what I am
sorry for, Lady B[uller], she being one of the nicest
women here.

What I find queer here is the extreme Toryism
of all parties, except Sir C. Sargent. (You will
remember that the swells here are so by a Tory
ministry.) Yet it sounds queer to hear the revolu-
tion in Italy spoken of sometimes with horror, some-
times as merely an absurd phase of politics soon
to pass by ; though on consideration, you can easily
suppose that any such a word as "nationality" must
be odious to the ears of all Govt. parties and
you can easily conceive that the R. C.s native &
English have a tower of strength in the P[ope]s
consul & that they believe in the speedy extinction

1 Sir Chas. Sargent, member of the Supreme Council of Justice
of the Ionian Isles, 1860, in the place of Sir J. Reid.

* Sir Patrick M'Chombaich Colquhoun, Chief Justice of the
Ionian Isles, 1861, in the place of F. Lushington.

207

Letters of Edward Lear

of V[ictor] Efmmanuel,] & the restoration of the
Roman States to Pio IX. There is a movement
among the Jews also for "representation" (! ! ! ! !)
at which both Greeks & R. C.'s foam & scoff.

Meanwhile the society is far less amalgamated than
in former years, when such old resident & reputed
families as the Reids Gisbornes Cortazzis & others,
made a nucleus of social life, or when so intellectual
a man as F. Lushington had a table & house. And so,
the aspect spiritual of this little piggywiggy island is
much as a very little village in Ireland would be
peopled by Orangemen & papists & having all the
extra fuss & ill-will produced by a Court & small
officials more or less with or against a resident
crowded Garrison.

The aspect material meanwhile (with which I
have most to do tho' unhappily no man can be
quite independent of the others,) is so far as climate
& country goes, lovelier than ever. Yet seeing it
has never rained since April last, & that it is
now daily perfectly clear & fine the wise anticipate
3 months rain at once & continual. For myself I
must get through this winter as well as I can, the loss
of my dear Ann, & also of Lushington as a resident
here, being a great weight to bear.

Many things here amuse me to hear, but there is
no time to write now : nor could all the Gladstone-
Young details be written down if I had. One of
Henry Bowen's brothers commands one of the
Regiments but he & the Govt. are not on " terms "

208

Corfo

Morier's brother-in-law Major Peel, 1 is an A.D.C.
Old Lady (Heber) Valsamachi, still lives lingeringly.
The whole affair of " lonianism " appears to me
absurd & ill-conditioned : an impossible end tried
for by impracticable means. Clark, the good chap-
lain is still here : but I shan't go regularly to
church, & if he sees the " Essays & Reviews " on
my table me voila fini. Aubrey de Vere has just
arrived which if I had to see him, would be a
bore : but isn't. O ! if I could but come back to
London, bringing with me the gold & blue & lilac
& pink of the air, sun, hills & snow with me ! How
is Mrs. Ruxton? The prison has been revolting
lately & Lady Emily K[ozziris] 2 greatly disturbed.
K. seems to be agreed on by all hands as more
incompetent than ever.

CORFU. 17 Dec. 1861.

I was highly pleased to get your two letters yester-
day, the Lord High C. having sent them to me
promptitiously. Before now you will have received
mine of the 3rd. I trust, though I don't think it was a
very lively one. The present ephusion of my pen will
be written in better sperrits, because I have got to
work, & am working hard : moreover I got letters
from Frank Lushington yesterday & also from the

1 John Peel, fourth son of Lieut.-Gen. the Right Hon. J.
Peel. He had served throughout the Crimean War, and was
appointed Assistant Military Secretary at Malta in 1864.

2 Her husband, Giovanni Kozziris, was Keeper of the
Prison.

209 P

Letters of Edward Lear

printer of the " Book of Nonsense " who tells me
that Routledge & Warne have brought it out & that
over 500 copies have been already sold. Please do
what you can to encrease the sail by axing and talking
about it.

The room I have to paint in is A No. I looking
out on Salvador & Seagulls : 25 feet long &
made by me my total living room. This is a plan

of the house, a rummy one
enough as to shape. (CLO..
means windies. era. means
greats or firy places. =
means doors.) .... The
only great annoyance to the
house is, that like as in all
Corfu houses you hear all the noises of every other
inmate besides yourself: & the people over me,
(Col. Maude,) tho' very amiable folk, are awfully
noisy. . . . One of the best comforts of this place to
me is the greater amount of daylight both in quality,
and in number of ours. Fancy drawing out of doors
till 5.5. P.M. as I did yesterday! as for the weather it
is Paradise multiplied by 10 : tho 1 of course a flood
of rain must needs come bye & bye.

I like the Lord High who has asked me to dine
twice, & once walked back from the One Gun with the
landscape painter What I like in him is that he has a
will besides brains, & has a soldierly & straight-
forward manner quite trustworthy, & withal a proper
setting forth of dignity. The Court is called dull but

210

Corfu

at least it is not like that of the Young Dynasty
which was wholly a Dilettante affair & one always
felt that the whole set were there for Lady Y.'s
" amusement," & G.'s benefit. Sir John's vacillating
manner & softness mustard & mulberries in a hash,
are well replaced by the present Governor's qualities
as far as a " worm " can judge, & I think he is well
looked on by all certainly as a man of business there
is but one opinion of him. . . .

Meanwhile I am really delighted at the Petraja
pleasing her [Lady Waldegrave] so much : & she
could not have made me understand her liking of it
more than by the comparison of it to my singing.
You do not say if Mr. Harcourt's fall l was a fit or a
mere slip of the foot.

I had not heard of Lady Canning's 2 death, & I am
on account of those who survive her, most sorry for it.
It seems to me most especially sad, that after such a
terrible trial as her Indian residence has been, neither
Lord C. nor poor Lady Waterford,3 nor Lady S. de
Rothesay should be permitted to benefit by her return
home an event till now so nearly in view. To me,
either in Rome many many years ago, or at Osborne

1 On his return with Lady Waldegrave from their continental
trip, Mr. Harcourt had a serious fall at Folkestone, which
shortly afterwards resulted in his death.

3 Wife of the first Viceroy of India. She was the eldest
daughter of Lord Stuart de Rothesay.

3 A sister of Lady Canning's. Her husband, the third
Marquess, was killed in a hunting accident in 1859. Her gifts
as an artist were of a very high order.

211

Letters of Edward Lear

House, or afterwards again at Rome, or after that in
London, Lady Canning was always exactly the same
kindly consistent, & pleasant woman : unspoiled, tho'
having enough admiration for 20 fine ladies, & full of
taste and intelligence & unostentatious goodness.
With the worldliness & humbug of the L.s & the
vulgarity of the G.s she was to my feeling most
vividly contrasted : & I should think few persons
would be more truly mourned. If you hear any
particulars of her death let me know them.

One thing is needful that Henry Grenfell sends me
the dye-mentions of his picture of Philae * : I wish
particularly to have time to paint it here, where the
sunsets are capital : so please ask him to write the
feat a niches in the next letter you send, which please
the pigs may be soon.

What my letters are to you I can't say, for I never
read them over, but I believe they would be quite as
fit to read 100 years hence as anybody elses naughty
biography, specially when written off hand as mine are.

I wish I had more time for Greek : if I had my way
& wor an axiom maker & Lawgiver, I would cause it
to be understood that Greek is (or a knowledge of it)
the first of virtues : cleanliness the 2nd., and Godliness
as held up by parsons generally the 3rd., O mi hi !
here is a noo table sicks feet too by 3 feet hate !
I shall dine at one end of it write at the other, &
" pen out " in the middle. For gracious goodness

1 Fortescue's of the same subject was painted earlier, but
GrenfelTs was, I believe, when finished, considered the better.

212

Corfu

sake write ! & don't forget Grenfell's measure : nor
to thank Lady W. for her message : nor not to cease
adjuring people, especially Lord Shaftesbury & the
Bp of Oxford to buy the Book of Nonsense : &
O Lord! I forgot this horrid American war but I
think more than enough of it.

p.S. A. Tennyson has written an im : & also a
small pome.

The next letter from Fortescue announced
the death of Mr. Harcourt.

Lear to Fortescue.

CORFU. 2gth December 1861

Your letter of the 2Oth., came yesterday you may
suppose with what interest I read it. So many deaths
had occurred that no fresh one surprises me. So Nune-
ham is at an end : & Carlton Gardens for the present.
What a conflict of thoughts must you have just now
The very best thing for poor Lady W. will be quiet
& rest from the whirl of world at present. & do you
in as far as you can promote that I wished to say so
often during last season of theatres &c., but I did not,
knowing that you felt all I could say without my saying
it, & also that circumstances almost force certain
conditions of life & cannot easily be changed.

Now however, I do hope she will be quieter, for
enough friends of the first order both of rank & mind
as well as of heart, she is certain to have : and a long
list of acquaintance leaves no after pleasure when they

213

Letters of Edward Lear

flit away. I shall be very anxious to hear of her,
knowing well her vivid feeling of all that affects her
singular life. Pray give her my kindest remembrance
if you think it right to do so. I had begun a letter
to her full of nonsense, but nonsense is not the order
of the day, so it is torn up.

Prince Albert's death is shocking. 1 Poor Queen !
If stability of thrones is for the benefit of peoples, & if
the good life of Sovereigns conduces to the stability of
thrones, then Prince Albert's death is to be mourned
most deeply.

Recalling past sayings reminds me that after I
was at Osborne 2 I wrote down all the details of
my stay there, & one was, that Prince Albert
showed me all the model of the House, (then
being built only,) & particularly a Terrace, saying
" This is what I like to think of because when we are
old, we shall hope to walk up & down this Terrace
with our children grown up into men & women."

Dr. William's trial by Dr. Lushington 3 interests me
I do not think I shall write more now but go to

1 He died quite suddenly on the i4th December, before the
nation had time to realise that he was ill.

2 This must have been when Lear was giving drawing lessons
to the Queen.

3 Dr. Rowland Williams, the Vicar of Broad Chalke with
Bower Chalke and Alvedistone, near Salisbury, was one of the
contributors to " Essays and Reviews." He was prosecuted by
the Bishop of Salisbury for heterodoxy and tried before the
Arches Court of Canterbury, December 19, 1861, to January 16,
1862. By judgment delivered in June, sentence of suspension for
one year was passed ; but this judgment was reversed in 1864.

214

Corfu

Church & assist at the worship of false gods, (beside
your's & mine.)

Lear to Lady Waldegrave.

CORFU. 5//z., January 1862.

MY DEAR LADY WALDEGRAVE, I had begun a
letter to you, which I am now most glad I never
finished & sent before I received one from C.
Fortescue, dated the 2oth. & 21 St., for in that he
told me of what had then just happened, the death
of Mr. Harcourt, the day after I had written to F.
making enquiries as to his health since his fall at
Folkestone. I now take another sheet to write to you,
since it seems to me that any sympathy may be
welcome to you just now, for I feel certain that not
only the loss of Mr. Harcourt must have greatly
agitated you, but that you will feel it deeply for a long
time. Even to me, the news came as a surprise, for I
thought he might have lived many more years, & I at
once remembered how, at Nuneham, on his last
birthday but one when I had wished him " many
happy returns of the day " he had said, " When you
make those congratulations to one of my age, you
should leave out the word many" And it appears to
me that this sudden breaking of a close tie must have
affected you particularly : for in spite of the difference
of age & of your natural dispositions, death, after a
union of many years, must assuredly keenly affect the
survivor of two, when, as I know to be the case with
your's, the nature of the one left is full of warmth &

215

Letters of Edward Lear

truth. So, I shall be very glad to hear that your
health is good, & that by a time of quiet, you are
gradually feeling this sudden shock less, I cannot but
think too that it is a great thing for you to be able
to look back on the last years of Mr. Harcourt's
life as happier than those earlier (at least they
seemed so to me even since I knew him,) and in the
last journey of this Autumn, C. F. told me Mr. H.
had repeatedly said he had never enjoyed himself
so much. Moreover, the feelings which many of
his family have for you, must alone be a source of
comfort.

For Mr. Harcourt was always personally more than
usually kind to me, & at present I can call up
numerous recollections of him at all 4 houses, & none
but pleasant ones. How pleased I am now that you
have the two Nuneham pictures ! As well as that of
Petraja where you so lately were together. (And bye
the bye I ought to thank you about the payment for
that, & to tell you how extremely pleased I was to
know you liked it so much.) It seems to me that in
converting memories into tangible facts, recollections
& past time as it were into pictures, lies the chief use
& charm of a painter's life. (I'm sure if it isn't, I don't
know where it is, for technical study & manipulation
will always be a bore to me.) . . .

I know you will not be displeased at my writing this
letter the like of which you must have many of just
now : & you need not read it, if you have (as I dare
say you have,) much to do & think of: so long as

216

Corfu

you consider it to be written from a friendly motive &
forgive its want of etiquette that is all I care about.

Lear to Fortescue,

CORFU. Janry., 8, 1862.

I could not help sending a line, knowing well how
she [Lady Waldegrave] feels the death, & I hope &
believe she will take it for what it is intended to be
As you say, (& as I think I have nearly said,)
despite difference of age & nature, they lived so long
& closely united that it must be a very different heart
from Lady Waldegraves that would not feel the sudden
breaking of the tie most keenly. I imagined she
would go to Dudbrook r & almost wished she had
not, only because the clay soil & damp is so chilling &
trying in winter. I shall gladly hear how she is, as soon
as you can tell me. All you have said of her in this
last, is extremely interesting. She did all possible to
make his (Mr. Harcourt's) life a happy one, & it
certainly was happier as he grew older. She cannot
have any retrospections of neglect or want of affection
for him, but on the contrary many consolations arising
from having singularly done a wife's duties, always
looking at their different tempers & other circum-
stances of life. Mrs. Malcolm is a duck.

As for you, my distinct opinion is that you have
much contributed to the happiness of both Mr. H. &
Lady W. in many ways ; as to producing more regula-
tion of her mind by prompting cultivation, & as to that

1 Her house in Essex.
217

Letters of Edward Lear

reflecting again on his life. I can well enter into all
your feelings & how your mind is full of memory-
images of all these years. Try your utmost now to
prevent her ever embarking again full sail in a
London fashion-life million-cardy surface existence :
as I said before, she will always have enough first rate
intimates to create more than sufficient society, & may
be an A. No. i. leader without the need of a multitude
of followers. I shall long to hear more.

I don't see why Lord C[arlisle] should regret you
not being Chief Secry. Does he Lord C., wear his
trousers buttoned over his waistcoat as H. B.
used to draw him ? However, he is a very
good man really. (I did not expect you to
have seen the " Nonsense," which poor book
has come into a world of sadness : but you
may buy & give a copy to Arbp. Cullen, 1 one to
Sir Thingummy the M.P. for Dundalk 2 & one to
the O'Donaghue.) 3

Fortescue to Lear.

RED HOUSE,

nth January, 1862.

.^ . . I have been hearing constantly from Dudbrook
from Ward Braham, and two or three times from my
Lady herself. She has been and is very wretched
her spirits completely broken, and missing him who

1 The Archbishop of Dublin. In July he founded the Catholic
University of Ireland at Drumcondra.
a Sir Geo. Bowyer. See footnote, p. 165.
3 M.P. for Tipperary. (All three zealous Roman Catholics.)

218

Corfu

has been her companion for the last fourteen years ex-
tremely far more so than other people would believe.

. . . Before I end this, I must ask you a serious
question, which no other living human being can
answer except yourself, and I much doubt that you
can. I do it at the request of a first cousin of mine, a
certain Mrs. Tisdall, whose children have been feast-
ing upon the " Book of Nonsense," viz. : "Did the
lady in the last picture fall or will she fall on her
face, or her back ? " The latter way of falling is
supposed to be the most ladylike but my fair cousin
doesn't say so.

Lear to Fortescue.

CORFU, 21. January, 1862.

In reply to your question about the Lady of Clare
I will ask Dr. Phillimore or some one of deep thought
for I do not myself know what that curly burly
woman ended in : but I was disgusted at the
Saturday Review Dec. 21. talking of the Non-
sense verses being ' ' anonymous, & a reprint of old
nursery rhymes," tho' they gave " Mr. Lear credit
for a persistent absurdity." I wish I could have all
the credit due to me, small as that may be.

I wrote to you on the Qth., & to Lady W. also.
All you tell me of her is very interesting, & will
become of course more so. It is a period of your
life immensely pivotty & absorbing. Yesterday Capt.
Vernon called, an apparently nice fellow rather, tho'
with somewhat of the semi-ungainliness & hardness of
that branch of the family. He spoke of Lady Selina

219

Letters of Edward Leai

-3

o,
J5 5, 2

a 3 05

S -5

03 *. .

f
8"

O
"o?

C4n 2

O r<3

I" 9
>* c

220

Corfu

[VernonJ, 1 & of Lady W. of the latter in a way
which pleased me very much & was an antidote
partly to a letter I had had 2 days before, in which
Lady W. was spoken of so as to put me in a rage
only I knew exactly from whom the illnatured non-
sense was derived. It is enough that Mrs. Malcolm 2
& Lady Selina, of those who saw Lady W. most
intimately, are the best friends in speaking of her :
the others may all go & be bothered.

Franklin Lushington is married to-day.3 Of my 10

original friends (No. 3

1. W. Nevill. .

__ being dead) only num-

2. Bernard Husey Hunt. . _ '

_ . TT . bers 8 & 10 remain

3. Robert Hornby. . , _. _. , .

. TT _ , single. Nos. i & 6 being

4. Battersby Harford. .... ^.7^ T

_ ' viddies. JJtdn t 1 read

5. John Cross. _. . , , T
* _ TT _, Fitzstephens speech: I

6. S. W. Clowes. . - _

/-u i TV/T /-u u am on thorns for Dr -

7. Charles M. Church. _ , r . . , n . ,

^ _ L s ushington s judge

8. C. Fortescue. % J J ,

_ T . . ment, & 1 see they are

o. r. Lushington. . . .

TTT TT , bringing another suit

10. W. Holman Hunt. ,

against another author.4

Quem Deus these priests will be swept away.

Next week Miss GoldsmidS comes what the fine
& pious world will say to a live Jewess remains to

1 Widow of his eldest brother and daughter of the third Earl
of Clanwilliam.

2 Sister of Mr. Harcourt, Lady Waldegrave's husband.

3 To Miss K. M. Morgan.

< Referring to the prosecution of contributors to the l< Essays
and Reviews."

s Daughter of Sir Francis Goldsmid. See footnote, p. 183.

221

Letters of Edward Lear

be seen ; what does it matter that she is good,
sensible, accomplished, & handsome ? If she don't
believe in the supernatural attributes birth, &c.,&c.,
of course she must go to 'L.

Col. Maudes people, over me, are amiable, the
Decies (she a Miss Prescott r ) are very nice.
The Sargents & Woolffs I go to at times. One
Luard which I made drawings when I was 16
for his grandfather who was very kind to me I
am delighted to find here, as he is a superior youth,
& polyarchaiotopochromsgraphical in his tastes : so I
axes him to dine & "pen out" all the evening.

(The woes of painters : just now I looked out of
window at the time the 2nd were marching by I
having a full palate & brushes in my hand : whereat
Col. Bruce saw me & saluted ; & not liking to make a
formillier nod in presence of the hole harmy, I put up
my hand to salute, & thereby transfered all my
colours into my hair & whiskers which I must
now wash in Turpentine or shave off.)

Why don't Grenfell write ? If you are asked ever
about that Book of Nonsense, remember I made all
the verses : except two lines of two of them Abruzzi
& Nile. I wish someone would review it properly &
funnily.

I have no fresh Americain news : from Otago, where
my nephew, C. H. Street is Sub-treasurer at 3$o
per annum, my sister writes gold is making immense

1 Daughter of W. G. Prescott, the banker of Threadneedle
Street, I believe.

222

Corfu

changes. C. S. will I suppose make his fortune.
I was much distressed by next door people who had
twin babies & played the violin : : but one of the twins
died, & the other has eaten the fiddle so all is peace.
General Duller goes in a week. Sir John Inglis
comes. I will stop for a time & finish this if a tall
tomorrow. E. L.

2T>rd., I heard yesterday from my sister Ellinor, who
has heard from St. Louis. My brother Fred K. is " on
General Prices staff" whatever that may mean : his
only son Frank a Lieut, in the same army which
is " surrounded by the Federal Army " the writer
Frederick's wife's sister, writes in dreadful terror &
sadness. They have however received two batches
of money I have sent in letters in notes : Were
the correspondence good, much might be learned of
Missouri &c., but they write " religiously " & franti-
cally. I beg you will endeavour to abolish sham
religion when you are a Minister.

2nd Feb., 1862.

I want to hear more of Lady W. I hope she did
not dislike the letter I wrote. I heard abroad that
she wished to marry the C[omte] de P[aris] to the
daughter of the Parma people r & that she was a
great friend to all the B[ourbons] : & the A[umales]
will gladly enlist her interest & house as a help to
them. That they should be friends is natural & right
but that she should in anyway assist that effete & bad

1 Princess Marguerite, daughter of Charles III. of Bourbon,
Duke of Parma, who died 1854.

223

Letters of Edward Lear

lot as a sovereign family to future power would
be vexatious to all who know & like her. A year
& a half ago I told her she had been wrongly
informed as to the state of Naples (Kingdom) : she
however was sure that the B.'s were well looked
on in the province. Yet Garibaldi's march from
Reggio to the Capital must have settled that
question.

The P[rince] of W[ales] is to be here in two or
three weeks I suppose only passing : Arthur P.
Stanley I see by the papers is to be with him
who, though no courtier, is exactly the man for such
a place : & his nomination to it greatly pleases me. l
Alas! for my visit to Jerusalem! shall I ever get
there? (I should not like to go with the Royal
party tho' nine league boots & all restraint.)

Sir H. S. Storks is particularly kind to me. He is
a well-bred man & fitted in all respects for his place it
seems to me. I discover by degrees why the military
don't like him * he is only a Colonel in the Army
ergo Generals & Colonels don't like to be under
him : But, so far as I can learn, their small pro-
vocations have been only necessarily interfered with
by him. I never saw society so disjointed and dis-
hevelled as this is nowadays.

Miss Julia Goldsmid has come with a friend

1 The Prince of Wales went on a tour to Egypt and the East
from February to June, 1862, and Arthur Stanley, at this time
examining chaplain to the Bishop of London, accompanied
him.

224

Corfu

Mrs. Nay lor. (I got them rooms in a new Hotel,
the other part of which is taken by Kozziri & Lady
Emily.) Miss G. had determined I find, not to go to
the Synagogue here, & had she not done so, I
should have deterred her if possible from going
there. For as the Jews here are all of the lowest
orders, the advent of a Lady might have brought
" Confusion on the little Isle." O Lord ! I must
take Mrs. Naylor to church this afternoon :

I dine at Woolffs today which may or may not be
"a bore." Mrs. W. is a clever little woman very:
(I remember you used often to bully me for being
" easily bored " by people : but when one reflects
you yourself are most singularly hedged in &
unapproachable by all but a very limited set &
class : (no fault of yours I only wish I could be
so too:) "Moral" you, avoiding various disagree-
ables in men & things cannot justly blow me up
for disgust at not being able to avoid said disagree-
ables.) (As a point of illustration, Lord E. B.
is here deaf, & to me a frightful bore. But to the
unsensitive, he, being a Lord, & " affable & talks so
much!" is "a delightful man"!)

I am on thorns for Dr. Lushington's decision about
Williams. Should Williams be condemned, I think
you will not be surprised by my openly becoming a
Unitarian some day : for if Popes & Parsons are
to sit on our brains, it behoves them as has any to
stir, & show they have not succumbed to the chains
of Priesthood altogether. Do you read the National

225 Q

Letters of Edward Lear

Review ? Do you not think that there will be war
with Yankeedom even yet ? Mrs. Tennyson's letters
are a great pleasure to me. My old friend W. Neville
(of Gresham St.) has taken Sir T. Laurences house
in Russell Square : I always used to wish for that
myself. At present my only wish is that these
accursed Rats were away, & that Col. Maude
wouldn't bump his chair over my head so. The
old General I is going to leave Corfu, & the new, Sir
J. Inglis, 2 is just a-coming. Count G. Henchel von
Donnersmarck his name is not quite long enough
has come back : he is the delight of most as he talks
unceasingly & in a completely monotonous voice : to
me he is the deadliest of bores, tho' not bad as a man
I daresay. Is not perpetual talk idealess prattle
the utmost of bore ?

I am feeling to begin to wish not to come to
England this year : but two months will decide.
Keeping up rooms in London & two long journeys
are certain expenses, pitted against what are very
uncertain gains. There is a man in a boat here
under the window who catches fish all & every
day with a long 5 pronged fork : a waistcoat &
drawers being his dress. Why should I not do
the same?

1 Sir George Duller, K.C.B., served in the Kaffir War 1846-7,
and commanded a brigade at the battles of the Alma and Inker-
mann, and continued to serve at the siege of Sevastopol, 1855.

a Major-General Sir John E. R. Inglis, K.C.B., Colonel of the
32nd Foot. He earned lasting renown by his gallant defence
of Lucknow in the Indian Mutiny, 1857.

226

Corfu

CORFU, 16 Feby. 1862.

I am much pleased that Lady W. liked my letter :
to have given her a mite of pleasure is something. 1
As you say, such phases of life are " not meant to be
banished as dreams, but to influence life & character
for good '." And again, I agree with you that no con-
ceivable position of life ought to be blotted from
memory if it could be.

I delight in the knowledge of Lord & Lady Cler-
mont constantly enjoying my pictures : they are a
placid duck-like couple, & I like to hear of their life.

Bye the bye looking into last years journal (I
generally compare years,) I find on Sunday,
Feb. loth., 1 86 1 "4<Dscue breakfasted with me, &
staid 2\ hours. His society is always, I think in-
variably a great comfort to me, & even my bore-
ability & fastidious worry can hardly ever find any
vexation therefrom, which I think I cannot say of
that of any other living man." There Sir! I fear
that's what you can't say of me tho' ! My journal
will be funny enough 100 years hence tho' I only
write down what is shortest & most personal.

Twice I have walked out with Miss Goldsmid &
her friend Mrs. Naylor : Miss G. has all the talent
of her race, & is very amiable. But Lord ! Lord !
how slow they walk whereby I freeze & sneeze.
Once I have dined there yea twice ; & the even-

1 Of this letter Lady Waldegrave said : " He writes just the
right things to me, but a man who sings like that must under-
stand other people's feelings."

227

Letters of Edward Lear

ings were pleasant apart from Garrison gossip, &
full of intelligence & agreableness. On Saturday
the 8th., salutes announced the New General's
arrival, Sir J. & Lady Inglis 1 & family not to
speak of endless furniture, & on the same day more
salutes recorded the departure of Sir G. & Lady
Duller "so the old order giveth place to new"
I am sorry not to see Lady B. again, as I liked her.
On the loth, came the Capt. Geoffry Hornby 2
suddingly his ship the Neptune having come from
Malta. An odd rush of other day memories came
to me on seeing & hearing him : but unless he
dines at Major de Veres 3 today I am not likely to
see or hear him much.

Letters have been aboundigle : Mrs. Tennyson
sends me those truly beautiful & grand lines of
Alfred, as the dedication of the Idylls to P. Albert's
memory : I hardly ever read anything lovelier. That
duck also sent me an immense account of Frank L.'s
wedding. Meanwhile the Osborne has gone past
here for the P. of Wales whom they expect on
Thursday the 2Oth., (I am sorry to hear A. P.
Stanley does not come with him.) no one seems to
know how long he stays. I do not think I shall
put myself forward at all for you know Artists,
unless R.As., never go to Royal Levees in England.

1 A daughter of the first Lord Chelmsford.
a Second son of Lear's old friend, Admiral Sir Phipps Hornby,
of Littlegreen.

3 Major F. H. De Vere, fifth son of Sir Aubrey De Vere.

228

Corfu

So E. B. is to marry Lord S. : I wish he would
present her with my Masada, as she went up to the
castle.

There are a Mr. Lair, a Mr Luard, a Mr. Layer,
& a Mrs. Lien, here : may they meet with the reward
due to having names so beastly like mine !

The Elections are over, of which you will probably
know more than I.

My new Gallery contains (tho' none are complete
& tho No 9 is not there at all yet,) No i a large
Corfu begun in 1856 No 5 a smaller. 7 ditto
8 ditto : (respectively 200, 100, 50 & 30 guineas)

The last is I think sold to a Major Reynolds : the
first a wealthy Mrs. Fort seems to desire. 2 Mt.
Athos for Sir F. Goldsmid. 3. Florence for F.
Fairbairn. 4. Turin & the Halps. 6 Lake of
Butmito (also is in possible way of sale for 50
guineas.)

I have been looking carefully over all A. Tenny-
son's poems, & noting out all the Landscape-subjects
once more which in all amount to 250. Sometimes
I think I shall make the last effort of my life to illus-
trate the whole of these by degrees & finally, having
constructed a gallery near London, receive shillings for
the sight of my pictures, & expire myself gradually

229

Letters of Edward Lear

in the middle of my own works, wheeling or being
wheeled in a Narmchair. Intanto do you see the Book
of Nonsense on all Railway Bookstalls ? I shut up.

The reference to Miss B is explained

in a letter of Fortescue's dated the 2ist of
February, in which he says :

Are you aware that one Miss B is gone

turned into Lady S ? Of course you are.

Do you know how it happened? The B book

was severely handled in the Athenaeum. Miss B.
wrote to the Editor, requesting to know the author of
the critique, that she might convince him of his
injustice, etc. Soon after, Lord S., whom she had
never seen before, walked into her room, announced
himself as her assailant, came again, etc., etc. Let us
charitably hope that he has since done her justice
in every way.

Lear must have been misinformed about
Arthur Stanley's movements, for Fortescue
also says :

... I saw Arthur Stanley in this room . . . the
day before he started to join the Prince at Alexandria.

Lear to Fortescue.

CORFU, 6 April, 1862.

I am not able to write well being far behind with
many letters, and having been seriously incon-

230

Corfu

venienced in many ways by the act of moving
upstairs into the third floor of this house (at length
I have got some quiet !) and by having been obliged
to inhabit a small room for a week, out of good nature
because the paint in another house was not dry, and
the parson, living where I now do, did not like to
budge. . . .

I have had an extremely nice letter from Ly. W.
Please thank her. Some rhinocerous beetle had told
her I thought Dudbrook unhealthy. Of course I hear
enough of her marriage and by some am pumped
sufficiently : at present I hear either Marquis of Bath
or Duke of Devonshire are the favoured chances ! ! I
believe myself that things will all go rightly but shall
nevertheless hear gladly if anything occurs, as at
times I fuss. . . .

Possibly the Cedars may sell whereby joy will
arise in the Landscapepainter's buzzim. . . .

A letter from H. Hunt is sad telling me of poor
Egg's I house being burned.

14 April, 1862.

W[olff] knows as little of me as may be, beyond
that he and Mrs. W. have been very good in asking
me there, and that I have not gone. You can well
guess that sudden intimacies with a crowd is not al
mio gusto. He is a good enough little fellow, but too
rdpandu and superficial to please me greatly, though
not more so than is just the thing for his place here,

1 Augustus Leopold Egg, the painter.
231

Letters of Edward Lear

and they are very properly highly popular. He can-
not do without society and it is not easy to find out
at first how much men like you who ask odious and
vulgar people just as they do oneself more by way of
having someone to break the life of monotony here
than from really esteeming one. After a while how-
ever, they asked me in a different way, and were
really very friendly, but he is right in saying that I
have not been in good spirits. The occupation of my
life a daily journal to my sister Ann, is gone : and
constant losses of friends do not enliven (bye the bye,
Mrs. Stanley is gone, 1 and now, poor dear Mr. F.
Beadon 2 : well if George Clive recovers. 3 . . .
So far written, Peel comes to say goodbye Mrs.
R. Morier's brother. And so I sit down again, but
my thread of thought is broken as the spider said
to the housemaid. Sir H. K. S. has been particularly
amiable to me always, and all through. I wish you
had come to Malta and up here ! ! only I am in a
constant fever to hear more of Ly. W. I am glad
she is going to C. Harcourt's, and am sure she will
see much of some of that family always Mrs. M.,
&c., &c. No one shred of work having been pur-
chased here, I have come to the end of my
money. . . . Fairbairn's, Sir H. Goldsmid's, and
Grenfell's pictures must therefore be finished being

1 Arthur Stanley's mother.

2 The Rev. Frederick Beadon, Rector of North Stoneham,
Hants.

3 G. Clive had had a seizure of a paralytic nature.

232

Corfu

sent on to England and I must work there to
finish Turin and other pictures, hoping to sell them.
The worry of being so without ready money bores
me continually. I go to Paleocastrizza tomorrow
for a week but the weather is quite peculiar dull
heavy scirocco always and I am all aweary of my
life. Whether I shall ever brighten up I can't tell
probably not, as I am 50 next May.

Here's a bit of news to wind up with. After I had
written the letter which encloses this, I heard a great
noise, and saw 4 carts full of furniture, all being
brought into this house proceeding which disturbed
me with fears of being less quiet seeing that a 6th
added to the 5 families in this house, would not add
to my peace. So I asked a servant going upstairs
(G. being out) what the row was. "It comes from
Kozziris," says the man. " Mrs. K. is going to leave
him and come and live here." I said nothing, but did
not believe it : the Lord 4bid such a thing should
happen. But when George came, says he " these
things are to be sold by auction, for Sig. Kozziris is
going to leave his " Posto " as keeper of the prison,
and they are going to England, where they say
Signora Kozziris is of a familia grande e ricca assai
and will keep him. 1

1 It will be remembered that Lady Emily Kozziris was a
daughter of the second Earl of Clancarty.

233

Letters of Edward Lear

PALAEOKASTRIZZA,
EASTER SUNDAY. April 20, 1862.

I wish you were here for a day, at least today :
only that you are at " Red House," which is properer
and Abercrombier. I have been wondering if on the
whole the being influenced to an extreme by everything
in natural or physical life, i.e., atmosphere, light,
shadow, and all the varieties of day and night, is a
blessing or the contrary and the end of my specula-
tions has been that "things must be as they may,"
and the best is to make the best of what happens.

I should however have added "quiet and repose"
to my list of influences, for at this beautiful place there
is just now perfect quiet, excepting only a dim hum of
myriad ripples 500 feet below me, all round the giant
rocks which rise perpendicularly from the sea : which
sea, perfectly calm and blue stretches right out west-
ward unbrokenly to the sky, cloudless that, save a
streak of lilac cloud on the horizon. On my left is
the convent of Paleokastrizza, and happily, as the
monkery had functions at 2 a.m. they are all fast
asleep now and to my left is one of the many peacock-
tail-hued bays here, reflecting the vast red cliffs and
their crowning roofs of Lentish Prinari, myrtle and
sage far above them higher and higher, the
immense rock of St. Angelo rising into the air, on
whose summit the old castle still is seen a ruin, just
1,400 feet above the water. It half seems to me that
such life as this must be wholly another from the
drumbeating bothery frivolity of the town of Corfu.

234

Corfu

and I seem to grow a year younger every hour. Not
that it will last. Accursed picnic parties with miser-
able scores of asses male and female are coming to-
morrow, and peace flies as I shall too. . . .

Enough of myself for the present, only as one wants
one's friends to write about M^zVselves, one goes and
does likewise. I shall be anxious now every letter to
hear something of your destinies though perhaps
they must rather be talked of than written.

A great drawback to these Islands is the once a
week post : there is a tension and a vacuum for six
days and a horrid smash of disappointment if the 7th
brings nothing.

I hope this summer we may get a quiet two or three
days together, for I take it after a short time you, the
last of the Mohicans, will cease also to be single, at
least I hope so, though the fact of your doubling your-
self would cut you off more from my intercourse. . . .
In your old age I suppose you will be a minister, and
won't go near Ireland, or I might settle to die at
Flurry bridge or Dundalk (! !), and get good studies at
Newcastle and Ravensdale. But I shall or should
have a chapel of my own. Belfast Protestantism,
Athanasian creeds, and all kinds of moony miracles
should have no entrance there : but a plain worship of
God, and a perpetual endeavour at progress. (Which
reminds me of Tennyson's little poem of "Will,"
which I have been trying to translate, and part of
which I send you.

One thing, under all circumstances I have quite

235

Letters of Edward Lear

decided on cnrofyaaiaa aKp&ug l when I go to heaven
"if indeed I go" and am surrounded by thousands
of polite angels, I shall say courteously "please
leave me alone ! you are doubtless all delightful, but
I do not wish to become acquainted with you : let
me have a park and a beautiful view of sea and hill,
mountain and river, valley and plain, with no end of
tropical foliage : a few well-behaved small cherubs to
cook and keep the place clean and after I am quite
established say for a million or two of years an
angel of a wife. Above all, let there be no hens!
No, not one ! I give up eggs and roast chicken for
ever ! " which rhapsody arises from a cursed infernal
hen having just laid an egg under my window, and
she screeches ! O Lord ! how she screeches and will
screech for an hour ! Wherefore, Goodbye. No more,
dear friend, for at a screech I stop.

avTog TOV biroiov 17 SeXeo-te iivat Svvara !
, aXXa cev Sa vwoQepei TroXu,
i, aXXd Slv tfjuroptt va vtrotytpti aSticwp,

A<m, TO ? irepiiraiyfJia TOV &apv<l>(i>vov Koapov Sev TOV KIVEI,

Mrjrc oXa ra ^utytara KUjuara rrje Suoru^taf TOV TapaTTovv :

"Oiroiog (ftaivETdi aic/ou>r?j/>iov Trfrpae,

How, irepiyvpiafjitvov jue Sropv&wSeg a.KOV(Tfia,

T<> v TTtXayov Sl^erat TJJV KVfiaTi^oixrav avytcpovaiv,

S'aXX avTov, irov, Slv icaXjrpvwv fit^po
qv Svvafjivv oujoavou-KaraSatvovro

1 I unconditionally refuse.
236

Corfu

Kcti Travrore yVt a^evtcrrepog Sta irpaTTWfjitvov tyf
'H, atyaXfJia TTOU (fratveTai ^apttv KOI a-uyyvwarov,
icai oTroSaXXov aei,
jg tva row biroiov ra (rr/^eTa arlicovrat
Ilovovra etc afttrpov a/^uov,
Kat Trajoa rtva KOTrtao-jUevrjv KaucrwSTjv yijv,
OoXo/zaKjoav, Kara ^Xoyto-jUtvov SroXov, toow !
'H Troytg (T7rivSepi%i wcrav crtroc aXaroc

tt? fiiav pvrtv TOV VTTfpCoXtKoO Souvow.

It is needles to observe that I have not attempted
to render the original (it is at the end of the volume
of " Maud ") in verse, which if I had done, it would
have been worse. Also, the first verse has been
corrected by Sir C. Sargent : the second is still in its
virgin absurdity. ... I vote you do not destroy my
longer letters, leastwise till you get another of them,
because if I died they would amuse you. Considering
that little more than 6 years ago I didn't know a letter
of the Greek alphabet, I think I might translate
A. T.'s poems in some 10 or 20 or 50 years more.

April 27.

I returned here on the 22nd much the better for
my stay etc rlv i^ox^v. 1

... I wish I was married to a clever good nice fat
little Greek girl and had 25 olive trees, some goats
and a house. But the above girl, happily for herself,
likes somebody else.

1 My stay in the country.
237

Letters of Edward Lear

CASA na/xi/tt&torrt, LINE WALL, CORFU,
May 7, 1862.

At first I was rather alarmed about the " medium " *
affair, for the mere going to those impostors and the
attraction of continued conversation about them does
a deal of harm, when those who go to see and return
to talk are people of position whose example is
sheepily followed by thousands of fools from Bel-
gravian fools downward. But if you, Kinglake, 2
Woolff and others speak as plainly as you write to me,
then I believe good may come of these people being
visited. That they are gross impostors, " trading "
(as a good letter in the "Times" said some
weeks ago) " on the affections and credulity of man-
kind " I have no doubt : yet many do not think so ;
and it should be the part of those who are wise,
and who can suffer fools gladly (which I never
can) to enlighten the Assy = masses who can't help
themselves God not having willed them much
brains, and priests having muddled the little they
have. . . .

A more gritty vexation is that I have done so little
in Greek or in Greek topography this winter. Never-
theless I shall bring away the most part of this Island
I fancy. . . . Tomorrow I go out again to Lefchimo,
and by the time I return thence I trust to hear how

1 All London at this time was flocking to the seances of the
medium Forster, so much so that the Times devoted a leading
article to the matter.

9 Author of the celebrated history of the Crimean War.

238

Corfu

my pictures look at the Gt. International Ex n J seeing
that 2 R. Academicians had the hanging of them, i
should tremble for their fate, were not one of the
Commissioners Fairbairn my friend.

May 17. ... On the I3th, (being half a century
old the night previous) I came away and staid a day
at KAojuw, 2 whence perhaps is the finest Channel and
mountain view of all in Corfu. But I could not stay
for certain reasons, and came in again on the 14 to
Corfu. Alas ! there I learned a dismal fact, and one
much interfering with my plans. The two last (bother
them) Liverpool steamers have gone by here without
touching ! ! ! so that my boxes are still here, and I do
not know now if they can be sent off before July.
What to do I know not, as I wholly depended on their
being completed by that time in London, and on my
having the money for them. I am for the present
bewildered : and can only send $ to the subscription
for the Lancashire poor spinners, on the principle that
he that hath nothing is to give up what he hath. I
am absolutely uncertain when I leave or what to do
or why : or which : or whizzlepopps. . . .

Both Holman Hunt and yourself have kindly written
about my pictures both saying the same as to their
being hung so high. Two R.A.'s having had to
decide their destiny it is a great thing they were hung
at all. ... I am in such an infernal rage about these
pictures that I can't write any more. I fancy I shall
give up Stratford Place this year. Do the Japanese

1 Opened at South Kensington on May ist. a Klomo.

239

Letters of Edward Lear

Ambassadors 1 want a Topographic Artist? I'll go
back with them, and perform the " Happy Dispatch"
if I draw badly. . . . We perceive the ancient Wolff 2
is dead. Mrs. W. goes to England soon. She is a
very clever little woman. With her is a nice Greek
girl. When we meet a c Sa 6//tArjo-w^tv TroAu.3

1 9th May

I find the "Marathon" goes to-morrow, so I certainly
can't go thereby. After all, 20 days at sea is a horrid
loss of time. She takes to England (besides my
pictures) old Lady Valsamachi Heber's widow to
die there, I should think.

Yesterday I went to church. Lord ! Lord ! what
an idiotic sermon did good Craven preach about the
next world, as how " many excellent men believed that
we should not recognise anyone in the future state,
because, if we were to do so, we should also perceive
our friends alas ! great numbers of them ! tortured
in the gulf of fire below as it is plain from Dives
twigging" (he did not say "twig") "Lazarus in
heaven above." Why are men allowed to talk such
nonsense unsnubbed in a wooden desk, who would be
scouted in an ordinary room ?

1 The first Embassy ever sent by Japan to Europe came ovei
this year to visit the Great International Exhibition.

3 The Rev. Joseph Wolff, father of H. Drummond Wolff, of
Hebrew origin, was the first modern missionary to preach to the
Jews at Jerusalem. He styled himself "Apostle of our Lord
Jesus Christ for Palestine, Persia, Bokhara and Balkh."

3 I hope we shall meet often.

240

Corfu

The afternoon and evening I passed pleasantly with
Col. and Mrs. Wynne ; he is a cousin of the Wynne
who married Lady Clermont's sister, and she is a
granddaughter of old Lady Clancarty whereby Lady
E. Kozziris is her fust cuzzing. She told me a good
story of that old lady tho' I fear you must know it.
At the Clancarty hospitable dwelling vast numbers
were gathered : and one rude fast youth who did not
know the Lady of the house personally, dragged a
portmanteau roughly upstairs and threw sticks &c. &c.
about in the hall, saying " Why, this house is just
like a hotel ! just like Betty Cuffe's ! " " But Sir,"
said the dignified and outraged Lady C. advancing
to him " you do not seem aware that Betty Cuffe has
a great advantage over the mistress of this mansion :
she is not compelled to associate with those who come
under her roof!" (Cubby collapsed).

I beg to say, the weather is one continual, I say
again, comtimmuel and never ending scirocco not a
mountain visible for days past nor like to be till rain
comes. I think therefore I shall start by the Ancona
boat on the 5th, and risk the Italian fetes. The
Thursday's debates ought to come today.

2Oth. They did come, and I was delighted with
Lord P[almerston]'s speech. A more wretchedly
factious-crooked maunder than Dizzy's display would
be found with difficulty. It does not even read as if
it had been well spoken, whereas P.'s is all straight-
forward bluff truth, and, I should fancy, must have
been greatly worth hearing.

241 R

Letters of Edward Lear

Wonderful to relate, I have packed up, and decided
to go by the Liverpool steamer Marathon, which is
expected to-day or to-morrow by Zante and Malta
and to England about the icthor i2th I suppose. . . .
So here's for the Island valley of Avilion : and therefore
don't write again.

242

CHAPTER IX

May to November, 1862

MALTA AND ENGLAND

Lear to Fortescue.

IMPERIAL HOTEL, VALETTA.
29 May 1862.

HERE I am still on my way England wards.
But how it comes that I turned out of the
Liverpool steamer " Marathon " and have been here
since Sunday I will now defulge.

I went on board the " Marathon " on Tuesday the
2Oth, believing she would start directly and go
directly to Liverpool. But she didn't start till
Wednesday, and then, arriving at Zante she staid
two whole days there : and so, by degrees I heard
it said that she would do ditto here, and at
Messina, and at Palermo, and might reach England
on the loth or I2th of June. Witch fax I only
came at granulously as it were grain by grain,
as the pigeon said when he picked up the bushel
of corn slowly. Whereon said I to myself if
so be as I can get my fare back again, I will
even go ashore at Malta and see that much be-

243

Letters of Edward Lear

loved place and wait for a Marseilles boat thereby
hoping to reach England before the 8th (and at a
more convenient end, to wit, Newhaven or Dover),
and meanwhile resting my weary lims on beds of
hashphodil, and moreover escaping the chance of bad
weather in the Bay of Biscuits and the Irish Channel.

And to the honour and glory and pleasure of the
Marathon be it said, they guv me back my fare
cheerfully and have since gone on their way with the
great lieutenant whom thou hast made to take his
pastime therein. The ship was a good ship : amazingly
comfortable and thoroughly well-conducted : active
and intelligent stewards pervaded the scene : enormous
and globular stewardesses permeated behind the
scenes : the food was good and plentiful : the ossifers
friendly and pleasant. But, if the ship encountered a
sea o ! wouldn't she roll ! ! being in form like a cater-
pillar, or right line length without breadth. The
company was select and rather quaint. Besides the
Landscapepainter, was the Lady of Sir Demetrius
Valsamachi once the wife of Bp. Regd. Heber poor
old lady ! she was really very amiable and pleasant
when awake or well enough to talk but I am not
up to talking much aboard ship.

. . . [Here] I only find Legh of the old faces but
Col. Curzon I of the Rifles has amiably found me out,

1 Leicester Curzon, seventh son of Earl Howe, was A.D.C. to
Lord Raglan in the Crimea. He was promoted to the rank of
Lieut. -Colonel on bringing home the despatch announcing the
capture of Sevastopol.

244

Malta and England

and Major Burke (Burke of Australian death -memory's 1
brother) is also pleasant to know leastwise his sister
is. And there is an Armenian traveller in the hotel ;
and I draw constantly on the Barracca point meaning
to paint a picture thereof one day ; and I wander up
and down the beautiful streets of Valetta and Senglea ;
and rejoice in the delightful heat and the blue sky ;
and watch the thousand little boats skimming across
the harbour at sunset, and admire the activity and
industry of the Maltese ; and am amazed that their
priests should consider that a constant ringing of bells
should be any sort of pleasure to the Deity ; and I
drink very admirable small beer plenteously from
pewter pipkinious pots : and I have gone to church
once, and have heard or rather couldn't hear a 40
minute sermon from a detestable shrugging and howl-
ing impostor ; and on the whole I may say with truth
I am far happier than I might be or probably should
be if still at sea. Remains the future ; 3 days and 3
nights to Marseilles, and the long 20 hours of rail to
Paris, and thence to Dieppe and Newhaven and
the ojous unpacking of boxes whether to be well or
ill accomplished is in the buzzim of the fewcher. . . .
What a fuss I see in the papers about Woolner and
Palgrave and J. Omnium ! 2 . . . Says I to myself I

1 R. O. Burke, who set out from Melbourne in 1860 at the head
of an expedition. He succeeded in crossing the continent of
Australia, but on the return journey was starved to death in
June, 1861.

2 A violent correspondence in the Times about the Art Hand-
book of the International Exhibition, by F. T. Palgrave, in which

245

Letters of Edward Lear

don't want no public praise nor blame nor nuffin : life
is too short for such a lot of ugly anger.

General appearance of a distinguished Landscape
painter at Malta his hair having taken to a violent
excess of growth of late.

LEWES. 5 June 1862.

DEAR 4OSCUE. I got here last night, having left
Malta on Saturday May 31 I shall come to Stratford
Place on Saturday the 7th. ... A monetary crisis has
ensewed : inasmuch as I lost j on board the steamer,
and when I got to Newhaven had only one shilling
left, whereby a cousin of Cornwall Simeon's one
Major Webber Smith lent me too pouns. . . . But

he expressed his individual opinions very freely. His excessive
praise of Thomas Woolner, the sculptor, was attacked on the
grounds that they were close personal friends. His criticisms
made the exhibitors so angry that he finally withdrew his hand-
book, to the great relief of the Committee of the Exhibition.

246

Malta and England

your Irish "Agrarian murders" J are what worry me
more than anything just now, tho' I do not know that
you and your brother are in anywise endangered.

In September, 1862, Fortescue's engagement
to Lady Waldegrave took place, but it was
received with some opposition on the part of
certain members of his family. The announce-
ment was not made for some little time, but
he wrote to Lear the very next day as
follows :

Fortescue to Lear.

DUDBROOK,

19. Sept. 1862.

You have the advantage of hearing today from
the happiest man in Her Majesty's Dominions,
including Heligoland and all the Colonies. Be it
known unto you, oh friend, that I have acted upon
G. Vernon's advice, except that I found it easier
to ask the question on which my fate depended by
writing than by speaking so wrote before I left
Red House, and asked leave to come for the
answer. Yesterday I arrived very soon discovered
that I was the luckiest dog in the world, and have
been half seas over with happiness ever since.

1 The year 1862 was a time of severe distress in Ireland owing
to the failure of the fuel and potato crops, and agitation against
the landlords was rife in many parts of the country. The
number of horrible murders and outrages that were committed
in April and May, necessitated the holding of a Special Commis-
sion to try the cases.

247

Letters of Edward Lear

Lear to Fortesciie.

BURTON PARK. PETWORTH.

21 September 1862.

I am not surprised, but am at least easy on your
account. I felt indeed quite as sure of what the
issue would be as one could be of anything mortal. . .

I will take care to be silent about the subject. It is,
however, very much talked of by those who know
the "parties" and I, as a friend of one, am probed
and pumped. My reply has been all along "my
own impression is that she is more likely to marry
C. F. than the D. of Newcastle] " but no more.

What an odd thing it is that you are officially acting
under him. 1 . . . Well, you know better than I can
tell you how pleased I am, and how much happiness
I wish you. If you think proper you may give my
love to the Lady ; but anyhow my very kindest
regards. . . .

In the lanes and hedges here Bishops are frequent
Oxford, Cape Town and the deuce knows what.

SUSSEX HOTEL, EASTBOURNE,

October yd, 1862.

I am here working out Henry Riversdale Grenfell 2
M.P.'s picture. The "Beachy Head" is a vastly fine
subject, though it is painful to walk 5 miles over

1 The Duke of Newcastle was Secretary of State for the
Colonies.

2 Another of Lear's friends and patrons, Member for Stoke-
upon-Trent. Afterwards a governor of the Bank of England.
One of Fortescue's greatest friends.

248

Malta and England

loose stones to get at it. There are however two
alternatives. i. to walk through the water ankle
deep, amid limpets & periwinkles which scheme
I tried once, but did not wholly like 2ly. to climb
for one hour to the top of the Beachy Head & return by
the Downs a scheme I also once carried through,
and my trouble was so far rewarded that I made a
sketch at the top, a fatty man in black standing on the
horizon's edge serving as a "figure" in my drawing.
Bye & bye the fatty man drew near, & admired
my work suggesting that I had possibly been
abroad, & asking me if I had read Mr. Lear's
Albanian travels ; and on my saying yes, declared
himself to be Sir Walter James's Butler, & that he
had seen me in Whitehall Gardens, & concluded by
offering me some porter & bread & cheese ; whereon
I adjourned to the place he & his wife had selected,
& enjoyed this improvised picnic very considerably.
As you observe (not injudiciously) I am always finding
acquaintances and friends a-doing me good.

Write soon. Now that the big event of your life
is decided, I can fancy you say what is there to write
about ? Write upon prawns, rheumatism, Armstrong
guns, Birds of Paradise or raspberry jam, so you
write.

HASTINGS.

$th October, 1862.

What to do with the Cedars I do not know :
probably make a great coat of them. To a philo-
sopher, the fate of a picture so well thought of and

249

Letters of Edward Lear

containing such high qualities, is funny enough : for
the act of two Royal Academicians in hanging it
high, 1 condemn it first, and 2ndly the coldblooded
criticism of Tom Taylor in the " Times," quasi-
approving of its position, stamps the poor canvass
into oblivion still more, without remedy. . . .

15, STRATFORD PLACE, OXFORD ST.

17, Oct. 1862.

Your party at Dudbrook seems a pleasant one
bar the Royalties, which are always a bore to me
more or less. ... I daresay it seems odd to you,
but it is a part of my nature to grow tired of the
" flaner " life very soon. Three days of it weary me :
on the fourth, the senseless chick-chack of billiard
balls makes me sick. The beaver, the Ant, the Bee,
and suchlike brutes are my model communities. . . .

Apropos of Grenfell, he has not as yet distinctly
pledged himself to bring in the "Total Extinction
of Irishmen " Bill, but we have been v in communica-
tion about it. You would do well, (if you have time)
to read a letter signed " an English R. Catholic " 2
in today's " Times," as also the account of the Riots
at Birkenhead.3 Punch should bring out a portrait of

1 At the Great International Exhibition.

2 Condemning Sir George Bowyer's letter to the Times of
the i6th, in which he practically upheld the conduct of the Irish
Roman Catholics in the Popish riots in Hyde Park.

3 Some violent quasi-religious riots took place during this
month, not only at Birkenhead but also in Hyde Park, between
English Protestants and Irish Roman Catholics, the pretext
being the meetings of the former to express their sympathy

250

Malta and England

old Wiseman exhorting the dear children "in the
name of him who said ' they who use the sword
shall perish by the sword ' " and in the background
the Vicar of Christ paying Lamorciere and the cut-
throats of Naples and Spoleto.

The new book by the Bishop of Natal * will make an
awful fuss among the Pharisees, and the resignation of
Mr. Neville 2 is a step in the right direction. . . .

Apropos of Corfu don't expect you have heard the
last about the Judgeships :3 the Wolffs said little new,
but I hear from other quarters that the manner of
removal has been looked on as the most insulting
and brutal, tho' I do not know if all said about
the way it was carried out can be true indeed it
hardly seems possible. Some tell me that the "great
majority " are pleased, for, say they " any injustice and
any stupidity on the part of our government is

with Garibaldi, whom the Catholics looked upon as the emblem
of hostility to the Pope.

1 Parti, of "The Pentateuch and Book of Joshua critically
examined," by Bishop Colenso, which gave rise to such fierce
criticism that he was publicly excommunicated in Maritzburg
Cathedral in 1866.

2 The Rev. C. Nevile resigned his incumbencies in the diocese
of Lincoln, stating in a letter to the Bishop, that he found it
quite impossible to subscribe to everything in the Book of
Common Prayer and the Thirty-Nine Articles, such as the
Athanasian Creed, &c.

3 Corfu was seething with indignation at this time over the
removal of Marcoran andXidian,the two Ionian members of the
Supreme Council of Justice by Sir Henry Storks, a step of
which Lear afterwards acknowledged the wisdom.

251

Letters of Edward Lear

naturally a Godsend and a political capital to their
party."

I am glad you have good accounts from Ireland,
and are happy yourself. If you can and gradually
initiate a life of regular solid occupation and progress
for your future conditions of life. It will make you
far happier in the present and far more so also when
you look back on that present after it has become
Past, than any amount of whizzy pleasure can
ever do. Don't turn up your nose. 1 I am 50 years
old, and see a many men and lives, and ends and
chains of lives which you don't and didn't and
can't. If it pleased God to send you twins I should
be easy.

TUESDAY, 21 Oct. 1862.

... I still maintain that Blasphemy and lying
are the Prerogatives of Priestcraft ; or they would not
say that the Almighty damns the greater part of his
creatures. So far I agree with you that which they
should preach (them there practical truths you elude
to) is worthy of all love and veneration, but since
as a body they have ever given the lie to such
preaching by their dogmas and lives cui bono the
preaching? Whereby though I sincerely like and
respect many individually, I object to the whole
biling.

The Chancellor 2 (I was there Saturday and
Sunday) was delightful : such an abundance of

1 " NOTE. I was hard at work at the Colonial Office. C. F."

2 Lord Westbury (Sir Richard Bethell).

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Malta and England

excellent conversation with a circle or with me
only one seldom has the luck of getting.

He Speaking of " undique sequaces " "sequax,
and saying "let us remember the line and go and
look for the translation," quoth the Landscape painter
in a fit of absurdity,

" My Lord I can remember it easily by thinking
of wild ducks."

" How of wild ducks Lear?" said the Lord C.
" Because they are sea-quacks " said I.

"Lear," said his Lordship, " I abominate the forcible
introduction of ridiculous images calculated to distract
the mind from what it is contemplating."

The painter chuckled inwardly having from before-
hand calculated on the exact result of his speech.

About Dudbrook oe ojUtArjo-oj/uev avpiov,

October, 1862.

... I have written to Lady W. to say I cannot
come to Dudbrook : it is no use trying on a plan
which may by rain wind or cold turn out abortive
by making me disagreeable to myself and my
fellow creatures.

I have also written to Lady W. to say, that all things
considered, I give up the Chantilly : in November, in
Paris, the chances are quite against my being able to
draw out of doors at all. ... I write also to give up
the Prescott's at Roehampton 2 from simmiler cawziz.

1 Until we meet to-morrow to eat raw flesh.

2 W. G. Prescott, a wealthy banker, of Clarence Villa, Roe-
hampton, committed suicide 1865.

253

Letters of Edward Lear

I wish you would send me one line, just to say if I
may send the Thermopylae to 45, St. James' Place.
I do not see why you should not have the benefit of it
for the 2 or 3 months you are there. Only don't
leave it on chairs or sofas or broomstix : that
proceeding always warps and strains canvas. . . . For

on going away, I want to leave everything here in a
pumptiliously exactual condition in case of death over-
taking me abroad : and so I clear my rooms as far as
I can.

Lady Waldegrave to Lear.

DUDBROOK,

Oct. 26th.

... I will postpone the Chantilly commission to
another year, but I will go to you on Monday the $rd
of November before one o'clock, to see if I can find
any small picture which would suit the Duke

254

Malta and England

d'Aumale. 1 I will tell you de vive voix, that I am
quite as happy as another of your warm friends.

Lear to Lady Waldegrave.

4/& November, 1862,

15, STRATFORD PLACE.

. . .Admiral Robinson 2 who came when I was out,
(he is a really good draughtsman himself,) says he
thinks 4oscue's Thermopylae the best picture he has
seen of Greece or any other place. . . .

Many thanks for your kind wishes. It is not pro-
bable however that my Ashmer will decrease, but
rather the contrary until I go out with a puff.

I went into the city today, to put the ^125 I got
for the " Book of Nonsense " into the funds. It is
doubtless a very unusual thing for an artist to put by
money, for the whole way from Temple Bar to the
Bank was crowded with carriages and people, so
immense a sensation did this occurrence make. And
all the way back it was the same, which was very
gratifying.

x The fourth son of Louis Philippe, resident at Orleans House,
Twickenham. He retired to England after the Revolution of
1848.

3 Admiral Spencer Robinson, at this time Controller of the
Navy. Afterward Sir Spencer Robinson.

255

CHAPTER X

November, 1862, to March, 1863

CORFU
Lear to Fortescue

Kao-o TlapafjivSioTTi : TO.

30 Nov., 1862.

I ONLY got your ancient and fishlike letter dated
loth inst. 3 days ago, I myself having only
arrived here on the 23rd. ... I didn't "go pretty
straight to Corfu " au contraire, the road being
broken up by torrents near Nice, I was obliged to
go in a steamer to Genoa. (There was such a fat
Cardinal on board, and didn't I get likenesses of him
under the table !) Then I went to Ancona, but the
Italian boats were postponed for a month, and so I
had to wait for the small Trieste boat, which, coming,
could not start for bad weather. . . .

The interregnum of five days at nasty Ancona, was
however, it behoves me to confess, made agreeable by
the company of a really delightful party of officers, of
which Gen 1 . Casanova who took the city with Cialdini

1 Casa Paramuthiati, The Fort, Corfu.
256

Corfu

and Fanti I was head. The progress which all Italy
is making astonishes even me, and I am often more
and more confirmed in my opinion that L[ouis]
N[apoleon] is right in keeping his troops at Rome. If
you have a bad sore, needs must be that the body is
more regularly ordered to keep it in health ; and the
general organization of the peninsula goes on so
a head, that the swallowing up of the papal power is,
so it seems to me, only a question of more or fewer
years. At Ancona, too, the De Vere's arrived on
their way to Corfu. (He is a nephew of Ld. Mont-
eagle's 2 she a sister of Burke the Australian
explorer) and this was a blessing as they are the
people I know here now most intimately. I never
saw a face of more mental health and beauty as well
as brightness though not perfectly regular features than
hers and little Mary De Vere was a real Godsend to
us all on board with her merriment and prattle. . . .
I have also been going on with my long projected
illustrations of Tennyson. . . .

I can't write consecutively for phits of coffin. . . .

A new General Sir R. Garrett 3 replaces Sir J.
Inglis : he looks above 4,000 years old, tho' perhaps
is not. Woodcox are expensive at present. In
Cephalonia I hear that the sun of Xidian one of the
removed Judges is elected by a great majority over

1 Ancona was taken in 1860.

a Lord Monteagle's only sister Mary married Sir Aubrey de
Vere.
3 He commanded the 4th Division before Sevastopol.

257

Letters of Edward Lear

the Government candidate. The whole thing is
simply considered a clever intrigue on the part of
Braila and Damaschino forced upon Storx in a
Gladstonian sense (G. corresponds with the Brailas). 1
And thus no one cares for it much, except that all
parties seem to consider the manner of the act wholly
unjustifiable. Poor old Sir George Marcoran bears it
very well and with dignity : nevertheless to some
friends he said, with tears in his eyes " I do not say
replace me. I only ask for one valid reason for so
gross a torto being used to an old public servant in
whom no fault is named." But as I said every mind
just now is full of the Greek affair. . . . Sometimes
I think the titles here are really very absurd : take
a list

Sir Henry Storks

Sir Robert Garrett

Sir Henry and Lady Wolff

Sir Patrick and Lady Colquhoun

Sir Charles and Lady Sargent

Sir Gregory and Lady Caruso

Sir Philotheos and Lady Damaschino

Sir Themistocles and Lady Zambelli

Sir Aristides and Lady Braila

Sir Demetrius and Lady Valsimachi

Sir Demetrius and Lady Curcumell

Sir Plato and Lady Platides

1 Braila was the secretary to the Senate at the time of Mr.
Gladstone's visit, and a supporter of British interests.

258

Corfu

Sir Karalambos and Lady Flamburiani,
Sir Christopheros and Lady Kalikopolos Biletti
Bizi.

after which last nothing but Sir Agrios and Lady
Polugorill6foros is to be expected. But this same list
sets forth a love of title in these people which indeed
they are vain. . . .

. . . Bye and bye I am going to ask you a quaps-
fillious question : I mean to have the Cedars put into
the ground floor room of 15 Stratford Place, and if so,
do you think Lord Lansdowne might be asked to go
and see it i.e. if you or someone could go with him
and so that he could not speak of it to any R.
Academician first, or they would not content with
having placed it so ill prevent his buying it. The
only drawback might be that the foolish landscape-
painters Creswick and Redgrave might bust of rage
which I should be sorry for brutes.

All Greece seems voting for AX^t'So? x and could
that happen the very best salve and guarantee for
future peace and former ills would happen : but I
fear it can't. Only I suggest let Prince Alfred rush
here and be suddenly crowned (Your Government

1 In October the whole of Greece rose in rebellion and
deposed their incompetent German King Otho. Prince Alfred of
England was chosen as their new sovereign by an overwhelming
majority, but international reasons prevented his acceptance of
the dignity. The choice then fell upon a Prince of Denmark,
brother of our present Queen. It was at this time that pro-
posals were first definitely made for the cession of the Ionian
Isles to Greece.

259

Letters of Edward Lear

disowning it like the Nice and Savoy affair) and who
can alter it ? Thereafter too, guarantees might then
be guv to Turkey for behaviour, etc : I half suspect it
will end so.

Of society more another thyme. Of balls of
moons of fish and other vegetables and of all future
and past events as things may be. I have got a
piano. Also a carpet. Also a tame redbreast : also
a hearthrug and two doormats. .

Dec. i. ... Here is a letter from Mrs. Clive :
G. C. 1 has resigned and H. A. Bruce 2 is in his
place. I hope B.'s health will serve him. Here we
hear, that should P. Alfred finally be elected, and then
be refused by England Gladstone is likely to be the
next favourite ! ! ! ! Fancy Mrs. G. Queen of Greece !

I shall write to Mr. G. and ask him to make me
P/owroe Z(irypa0oe,3 and Grand Peripatetic Ass and
Boshproducing Luminary forthwith.

Lear to Lady Waldegrave.

CORFU. January i, 1863.

Do you know anything of a young man called
Chichester Fortescue ? I wrote to him a month ago,
but have heard nothing of him at all at all, and my
belief is that he is either full of business, or over head
and ears in love, possibly both. If you should
happen to meet him, please tell him to send me a line

1 George Clive, Under-Secretary of State for the Home
Department, resigned in November, on account of his health.

2 Henry Austin Bruce, created Baron Aberdare, 1873.

3 Painter Laureate.

260

Corfu

some day and you can also wish him a happy new
year from me. I write this more particularly to wish
you the same and that this may be the forerunner of
many such. And for my own part I think you have
a great and goodly prospect of happiness, please God
that C. F. and yourself have good health : for I have
never known anyone with more qualities to ensure
happiness in his companions than Fortescue, I am,
however, getting anxious to know when events are to
come to pass, which news I suppose patience will tell
me if I wait long enough.

I should like to hear how the Duke D'Aumale liked
the little picture of Philse. For the present I have
done with oil-painting and have collapsed into degra-
dation and small loand 12 guinea drawings calculated
to attract the attention of small capitalists. ... I have
very little to grumble at, saving that I grow so fat,
which is horrible to think of and makes me miserable.

nth January. The pighearted has written. And
I have just been writing a long letter to him. He
writes a capital letter, full of substance. His strong
feeling for poetry, his natural good taste, his classical
knowledge and wide reading are all portions of his
character vastly interesting. But I am disposed to
think that by constant attention he may also eventually
attain a very high position as a Minister. As a
speaker (tho 1 I never heard him) I do not imagine
he would ever be in the first ranks but as a thinker,
I believe he will. All that is going on now about
Greece is immensely interesting to me ; and if there

261

Letters of Edward Lear

were a fixed and good government at Athens, I
should probably ultimately live there entirely : winter
in England never more I shall, and the double journey
is getting too onerous for so old a cove as I am
becoming. I wish that you and F. would come out
here for a few weeks : it would greatly delight you,
and in April would be charming. In midwinter the
weather is too uncertain to allow the chance of a fort-
night's visit nay, or a month's being satisfactory,
for it rains poodles and pineapples at times.

Lear to Fortescue.

CORFU, nth January, 1863.

O my eyes and little convolvuluses! If here isn't
a letter sent by the Lord High a come from you,
(a ninvitation to dinner following).

My dear Fortescue, I didn't write before, know-
ing how busy you must be, but I began to be in a
fidget about the Irish side of the question, nor until
Mrs. R[uxton] has seen Lady W[aldegrave] shall I
be quite easy unless indeed the Aunt perceives by
your altered health and manner that such improve-
ment can only be caused by happiness. . . . Your
6 pages are all very nice and I will just glance
them over, and then, as Craven said in his sermon
just now "proceed to continue to state to improve"
(Should not in a parenthesis impudence and igno-
rance be represented in white ties ? Why should
Craven preaching from a text about Moses, "your
sins will find you out " declare that not taking the

262

Corfu

Holy Sacrament would certainly make a man miser-
able here, and probably hereafter ? Yet poor Craven,
though a sad goose is a good and laborious man :
which his wife resembles the mother of the Milky
herd and produces an ecclesiastical baby regularly
every ten months. I shall ask him to dine with me
on Thursday next.)

To return to your letter. I can quite fancy the
library at Strawberry Hill under the circumstances :
I wonder if that glass globe stays out all the winter J :
if ever I grow childish or insane I shall ask Lady W.
to let me have that globe to play with, for never any
fool was more taken with an object. Bye the bye
talking of fools there is an old man here partly so
by nature partly by drink a seafaring man who has
formerly been in the Balearic Isles. He has taken
a kind of monomaniac fancy to my Nonsense Book,
and declares that he knew personally the Aunt of the
Girl of Majorca ! ! I hear it is more than humanity
can bear to hear him point out how exactly like she is
and how she used to jump the walls in Majorca
with flying leaps !!!!!! Bother this letter it won't go
on straight.

There was a young girl of Majorca,
Whose aunt was a very fast walker,

She walked seventy miles,

And leaped fifteen stiles,
Which astonished that girl of Majorca.

1 A silvered glass globe on a pedestal in the garden, which
specially attracted the admiration of Mr. Lear.

263

Letters of Edward Lear

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264

Corfu

You vast owly Mortle ! Why haven't you said on
what day the marriage of yourself and Lady W. is
to be. Confound it, nor where it is to take place.
I guess Twickenham or Brompton. By what you
write it seems to me you have announced it yourself
to dear old Mrs. Ruxton or she has seen it in print.
Do tell me, when you have been to Red House, how
she takes it. ...

Your remark " prayed at " reminds me of an angry
governess, to whom, being a R.C. a violent Pro-
testant lady said " The God of Mercy turn your
heart ! I pray for you morning noon and night ! "
" Croyez vous done, Madame," said the governess
"que ce grand bon Dieu n'a pas quoi s'occuper, qu'il
doit e"couter vos betises meme trois fois par jour?
Allez done ! je vous prie de ne lui pas fatiguer plus
pour moi ! "

I can fancy the Russ's 1 sensations. I think he
will have photographs of you all over the house,
busts on the bannisters, and a statue on the door-
steps. . . . The reason of servants being unsatisfac-
tory 9 times out of 10 is that their hirers consider
them as chairs or tables and take no interest in
them as human beings. Your lady knows that well
enough, for she is kind to them individually. For
myself, the only three I ever had, Hansen, Giorgio
and T. Cooper, would all do anything to oblige me
and I don't believe that is chance but the effect of

1 Fortescue's landlord in St. James's Place, where F. had lived
for many years.

265

Letters of Edward Lear

caring for them in some way to improve them or their
families. . . .

. . . Concerning the concession of the Isles I do
not see that it could be done till there be a certainty
of a solid and strong government in Greece which
amounts to saying it can't be done now. Yet it seems
to me, that could the English Government get the
other powers to agree that such definite arrangement
should be made whenever the proper time arrives,
a positive statement of this sort may do much to
make governing here more easy, the principal cause
of their botheration being thus removed. Surely they
might govern them without a parliament here at all,
on the grounds that the fate of the Islands would be
settled and only a question of time as to when
carried to an ultimatum or rlXoc. Wolff is not yet
come. Me 0da>rat,i a secretary who is away 9 months
out of 12 is a not very requisite functionary. In fact
Storx is more a ruler than any I have known here,
and the manner of the judges dismissal is, as far as
I can see, the only error of his sway of 3 or 4 years.
I hope to goodness your ministry won't be turned
out : but I have " reason to think " that a big man in
the Upper House has been getting at any kind of
information about that Judge affair. Possibly your
reverence may remember that Talbot 2 was governor
of Cephalonia for a time, verbum sap.

1 It appears to me.

* Colonel Talbot was private secretary to the Earl of Derby
when he was Prime Minister in 1852.

266

Corfu

... 1 rejoice to state that these views I am
doing 10 and 12 guinea ones seem much liked,
and that the young Duke of St. Albans 1 bought
5 a few days ago. Nevertheless, reddy tin is scarce,
and bills abound. . . . Nonsense issues from me at
times to make a new book next year. The weather
is at present lovely and the views over the harbour
are of the most clipfombious and ompsiquillious
nature. . . . Here's somebod a nokking at the dolor-
ous door. I must stop.

February ist, 1863.

On the 3oth ult. (which don't mean ultramarine but
ultimo) came yours of the igth. ... I have since
read that the marriage did take place, 2 and Sir
H. Storks, whom I me tout walking yesterday, said,
" if he is as happy as his friends wish him, he will be
extremely so." Being a Lord High Commissioner,
I did not slap him on the shoulder and say " Well
done ! old cove ! " tho' I wished to do so. I suppose
you to be walking about on your head, or at least
turning over and over starfish fashion. Some ill-
natured ass put that account of the marriage into my
paper the " Daily Telegraph " in order that it
might be followed by " Blue Mantle's " letter next
day on keeping or changing names. 3 When did

1 The tenth Duke.

2 On the 2oth of January, 1863, at Old Brompton Church,
only relations and connections being invited to the wedding.

3 Referring to a letter in the paper objecting to Lady
Waldegrave still calling herself " Countess Waldegrave," signed

267

Letters of Edward Lear

Lady W. ever call herself Countess W. and not
Frances Countess W. ? Or, if she had, do not
the Duchesses of St. Albans and Roxburgh keep
their titles ? Not to speak of Lady Farquhar and
Lady Pigott, etc : etc : It is delightful to know that
Mrs. Ruxton is happy. Has Russ bust his heart?

. . . Meanwhile my dear boy I wish you and
" Mrs. Fortescue " as the " Telegraph " will have
her to be, every happiness and as long a lease of it
as may be. And live as quietly as you can rank and
position permitting ; for, as you know I think, in
inward quietness lies greatest happiness.

As for me, I may say thankfully that no month of
January in all my life has gone by so happily as this.
. . . The winter seems all gone for the present
though the Equal-noxious gales will doubtless come
in disgustable force. ... As far as my wits go, it
seems to me that the present move is to enforce
public recognition of a distinct principle, viz. : that
when Greece is established, the end of our control
here is at hand. But that it should cease yet or
until a firm government can be put in our place,
seems to me very improbable. ... I still lead the
same quiet life, dining at the De Vere's or Palace on
Sundays, and on Tuesdays somewhere or other : one
or another of the garrison officers dining with me on

" Blue Mantle," and to which the real " Blue Mantle " replied,
showing that the precedent was a perfectly correct one. Lady
Waldegrave never called herself anything but "Frances
Countess Waldegrave."

268

Corfu

Thursdays, . . . Here is the paradigmatical illustra-
tion of last Sunday's dinner. 1

O child ! write ! I can't any more. (Bye the bye I
am glad to see 2 letters in today's papers in answer
to that ass " Bluemantle "). Nevertheless give my
love to " Mrs. Fortescue." I am collapsing with
laughter and must go and bounce chords on the
Piano.

8 February, 1863.

Your letter of the 3<Dth delighted me extremely
you seem so thund'ring happy. . . . Bother the
" Daily Telegraph " I see the real " Blue Mantle "
has been writing in answer to the malicious ijot who
goes on with his "Mrs. C. S. F." 2 What delights
me as much as anything is to hear that you and my
Lady are going to Red House at Easter. . . .

I'm glad she makes you get up early and take
oss exersize. The plan of the 12 o'clock breakfast

1 On Mr. Lear's right will be noticed the name Evelyn Baring.
This is the present Earl Cromer. 3 Another initial of Fortescue's

269

Letters of Edward Lear

seems good only take some coffee early or some-
thing a nemptystummuk is a bad thing. (Old
Chevalier Kestner 1 once said calling out in the
street " Come and breakfast with me tomorrow ;
not a teapot but a forked collation.") I was however
much amused when I read that bit of your letter,
because the evening before a man, after growling at
all " Greeks " with the contemptuous annoyance of an
Anglo-Saxon spoke as bitterly as he could of a nice
young Englishman an officer married to a really
nice Greek' girl "he was ceasing to be English
entirely and becoming Greek altogether." " But
how " said I. And after obliging my man to confess

that Captain was as good tempered, as attentive

to his duties as fond of exercises as regular at
church, etc : etc : etc : as before he married he began
to get cross, and at last grumbled out " Well then !
I'll tell you what he does ! he breakfasts a lafourchette
at ii or 12 and if you can say a man is an English-
man who does that the devil's in it."

Thank you for sending the 66 to Drummond's :
I have only got sixpence and 2 farthings left here . . .

We are all becoming convinced that we are
a-going to go but when we wot not. On Friday,
perhaps the last ball guv by the last Lord High came
off and I ought to have gone but didn't. (Lord!
how I hate the bustle and lights and fuss of
"society" social in reality as is my nature not

1 A well-known figure in Roman society of the forties and
fifties.

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Corfu

gregarious. Geese, swine, gnats, etc., are gregarious).
Have you heard anything of Bowen of late ? It is
reported here that he and Lady B. have parted . . .
it is said the Queensland papers were full of it yet
here one never knows what to believe.

I see you are going to have a Royal Academy
Commission : it will do nothing at all I fear. I wish
the whole thing were abolished for as it is now it is
disgraceful. 30 men self-declared as the 30 greatest
painters of England yet having in their body
Witheringtons Frosts Coopers C. Landseers
and other unheard of nonentities, while Watts
Linnel Hunt Maddox Brown Anthony and
many more are condemned to official extinction. My
sister Ellinor writes : " One of my eldest brother's
sons has been badly wounded in the last battle."

My watercolour drawings are all done but two a
really remarkable spot of energy : tho', by
reason of sitting still and poking to see
them my neck has grown longer and
my body fatter, and I am like to this

. . . My plans are still unsettled ... I think I
shall pantechnichize for a good long time and go
about wandering as it were like a tailless baboon.
Athens does not appear to me to be a bad place to
stick in ... I can't tell yet but I think this year
will see a change in my life, if so be I live for I
don't look to do that very long ... I wish you both
as much happiness as you can gobble, and am greatly
rejoiced at your condition.

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Yours absquoxiously and full of blomphious and
umpsidixious congratulations.

EDWARD LEAR.

February qth. Today's mail has brought me no
letters and only a single paper. But that tells me
of Lord Lansdowne's 1 death a great loss to many,
and a lesson in life, for he was a truly noble good fine
man. Yet at 82 and with so good and long a life
his death seems to come all-expected. Not so what
the same newspaper also tells me of the death of
poor William Harcourt's 2 wife! what a dreadful
blank and blow for him ! It seems but the other day
I met her in Pall Mall, so gay just going to church !

Yesterday after I wrote the first part of this letter,
Wolff and Sargent called, and the amount of question-
ing and pumping was fearful but I withstood all.
Howbeit I have my own ideas of good-breeding. A
German Count who was here last year said " I take
one walk with Sir C. Sargent and Mr. Wolff and
when I come back I feel no more one man, but one
catechism book that all may ask questions out from."
In the evening I dined at the Wolff's. Lady W. has
some of the delicate, intangible, not to be expressed,
refined qualities of woman in as great a degree as
I ever knew in any female. She is, in somma, a
talented Italian with a great dash of English firm

1 The third Marquis, who was offered the Premiership in 1852.

2 Afterwards Sir William Harcourt. He married in 1859
Miss Lister, a daughter of the well-known Lady Theresa Lewis
by her first marriage, with Mr. Lister.

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Corfu

good sense. This evening I had hoped for quiet, but
there came " Masks " and bored me to death, and
later a heap of people. Bother, said I, and came
away.

22nd February 1863

... I should certainly like to have a peep at you
and Lady Waldegrave in Carlton Gardens where
Wolff tells me he sees in the papers you are gone.
... I am again writing at 10.30 p.m. after a very
pleasant dinner at all events a good one at the
Lord High's who as I left the room, said "if you
write to Fortescue, give him my kind remembrances."
But of the day and of the weeks bygone, and of
many other things this deponent saith nil, whereby
and forwhy he is going to bed.

March i.

About the 2oth I finished the last of 60 drawings
all of i o or 12 guineas each in price and last week
the frames came, and then, after two days' insertion
of the drawings, measuring and nail knocking, I have
made a really remarkable gallery of water colour
works. This next week I have to ask some 70 or 80
sets of people to see this same gallery but I doubt
my success in selling the drawings. Cheap photo-
graphs are the order of the day now. . . . Among
those who most enjoy seeing what I have done, Sir
H. Storks is eminent. His delight in looking over
the drawings was very marked and at once he
bought one of Jerusalem and one of Corfu. Lady

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Wolff also examines everything minutely and with
an eye evidently used to look at nature heartily.
Others will irritate me Sir C. Sargent to wit who
saw all 60 drawings in 19 minutes, calling over the
names of each and saying " ^"700 ! why you must
give a ball!" Fool! As yet I have sold

worth but have not received one farthing for great
people generally suppose that artists gnaw their
colours and brushes for food. . . . Overleaf I will
give you a sort of picture of my gallery. There's a
proof that an old cove of 50 has some energy still !

Sir H. S. has been most particularly amiable
asking me perpetually to Sunday dinners. He is

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Corfu

doubtless one of the most agreeable men socially
and in his public character I perceive that he is
always consistent never for a moment forgetting
that he is the Q.'s Lord H. Commissioner.

Of the swells next to those Palatial the ancient
general seems a jovial amiable man. But there is no
one here I can walk with comfortably, and I miss
Lushington horridly at times. Last Sunday I
insisted (as Sir C. Sargent and Wolff wanted me
to walk) on not pottering to the one-gun-battery
which is like walking up and down Rotten Row so
we walked round Potamo ; it was one of the most
lovely of afternoons, and the colour and scenery were
enough to delight a dead man. These two live ones
however never once looked at or spoke of it : their
talk was of money and politics only, and made me
sick for the three hours. Lady Wolff is a singularly
clever woman. A Professor Ansted 1 is here a very
intellectual and pleasant man. Sir H. Storks sent
him to me from my knowing the island well, and I
took him to Peleca and got him to dine with me.
There is also a very curious young man Lord
Seymour 2 here : his ways are ways of wonder, but
it seems to me I should or shall like him.

Lear to Lady Waldegrave.

15 March 1863

Your letter of the 23rd February gave me a great
deal of pleasure ; it is delightful to know from your-

1 The well-known geologist. 2 Son of the Duke of Somerset

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self that you and Chichester are so happy, though I
knew very well that you would be so. The Pig-
hearted has an abundance of good qualities, which
are not observable even upon long knowledge of his
character.

I am glad I was not doomed to hear Mr. J.'s
sermon. I begin to be vastly weary of hearing
people talk nonsense unanswered, not because
they are unanswerable, but because they talk in
pulpits. That same morning I heard a "discourse"
on Lot's wife and other unpleasant legends, being
as I find in my journal, the 23rd I have heard on the
same subject. Are not the priests of the age blind
indeed not to discern that, though from the unassail-
able vantage ground of custom they may oppress the
human intellect for a long long while, yet that some
day the hour will come for them to go the way of all
other priesthoods ?

The battle about Colenso interests me immensely :
I perceive that Hampden 1 and Thirlwall are the only
two of all the silly Bishops who have not signed the
Memorial to " Natal." In the nature of things it was
not to be supposed that the Bps were to forward
Colenso's views, but they might have done another
thing to wit, let him alone. A broader creed, a
better form of worship the cessation of nonsense and
curses and the recognition of a new state of matters
brought about by centuries, science, destiny or what

1 Bishop of Hereford, whose election in 1847 was opposed by
thirteen bishops and the Dean of Hereford.

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Corfu

not will assuredly be demanded and come to pass
whether Bishops and priests welcome the changes or
resist them. Not those who believe that God the
Creator is greater than a Book, and that millions
unborn are to look up to higher thoughts than those
stereotyped by ancient legends, gross ignorance, and
hideous bigotry not those are the Infidels, but
these same screamy ganders of the church, who put
darkness forward and insist that it is light.

Meanwhile I hear that a measure is to be brought
forward in the Legislature, to simplify the creed of
religious England, and thus by the shortest catechism
to abolish all infidel doctrines. The Bishops of all
dioceses are to prevent the clergy from allowing any
person to attend church who does not answer 2 simple
questions in the affirmative.

i st. Do you believe in Balaam's ass, Jonah's
whale, Elisha's bears, and Lot's wife ?

2nd. Do you believe that all mankind who do not
believe in these creatures will be burned in everlast-
ing fire, wholly without respect to their wisdom,
charity or any other good quality?

. . . My life here has gone on very sklombion-
biously on the whole though I go out very little,
not being, as you know, of a gregarious nature. . . ,
Sir Henry Storks very often asks me to dine on
Sunday, and I find the evening there very agreeable:
he is so full of anecdote and information that you
would suppose he had had nothing to do but flaner
all his life instead of being soldier, governor, and

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Letters of Edward Lear

what not. To me he seems most excellently fitted
for his post here, being always the same consistent
man in public life and private.

Heaps of Gonfiati 1 continue to rush about here
at intervals : a surprising duchess came to my rooms

2 days ago (M ) though I don't think she

looked at anything very much. But the people
whose acquaintance has most delighted me are the
Shelley's 2 who are here in a yott. Think of my
music to "O world, O life, O time!" Shelley's words
being put down in notes by Shelley's own son !
Then there is Lord Seymour, who seems to me as if
he had dreamed a dream and was continually a-dream-
ing of having dreamed it : qua a Duke's eldest sun,
certainly an odd mortal, though there is somewhat of
interest about him. Also there was Smith O'Brien,3
who has sail'd off to Athens, I really believe, upon
some hubbly bubbly errand of stuff. The Duke of
St. Alban's was here too, which his Duchess mother
I like more nor the Duchess just gone. . . .

At the present moment I have pulled down my
Eggzibission and shall send some to England pos-
sibly, one is for C. F.'s wedding present bye the bye

1 Swells.

a Sir Percy Florence Shelley, only son of the poet, succeeded
his grandfather as third baronet in 1844. He married the
widow of the Hon. C. R. St. John.

3 The famous Irish revolutionary, who was tried for High
Treason in 1848 and sentenced to be hanged, drawn, and
quartered. He was, however, only transported to Tasmania,
receiving a pardon in 1854.

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Corfu

but my principal effort just now is towards the
production of 24 views to illustrate the Ionian Islands.
. . . My love to XoipoicapStaQ Choirokardias (which is
the Pighearted).

Please let C. F. have the disclosed note.

Lear to Fortescue.

23 March 1863

The sklimjimfiousness of the situation increases :
Sir H. Drummond Wolff has been and gone and
bought 2 of my drawings and Captain Stocker is
to buy another, so that I shall have enough tin to pay
rent and shut up house for 8 weeks or thereabouts.
Whereupon, I shall first make some studies of what
Lady Young used to call " Awnge trees " and then I
shall go to Paxo.

There was an old person of Paxo

Which complained when the fleas bit his back so,

But they gave him a chair

And impelled him to swear,
Which relieved that old person of Paxo.

Just as I had written this bosh, came a nokkat the
daw and lo ! a letter of yours sent by the L.H.C.
. . . I heard Wolff say yesterday that the "Judge
Affair " was postponed by Ld. D[erby]'s govt. I
hope your govt. won't suffer. I suppose something
must be unbeknown as yet to the public about the
judicials removed : anyhow Sir H. S.'s general public
conduct has been as far as I am able to see so

279

Letters of Edward Lear

sensible, that I cannot but give him credit for having
more and stronger motives for the change of the
official dignitaries than his adversaries allow.

I go hence as I said on the 4th April and
return towards the end of May, but I will write to
you from Sta Maura. . . . My gallery is nearly
dismantled, and must be put up what remains of
it in Stratford Place, where by June 15 I hope to
see you

u but never more, O ! never we
Shall meet to eggs and toast and T ! "

Never mind. I don't grumble at the less I see of
friends so they gain by it. ... Ford writes the
" Cedars " are just now put up again in Stratford
Place : please, if you have time, see them and tell me
how they look poor brutes.

The account of the wedding 1 was delightful : poor
dear Queen. We are going to abluminate tonight
the day being fine. Giorgio has bought 96 little
earthen pots for lights. ... I wonder if you had a
new coat when you married.

Another Nok at the Dore Sir Percy and Lady
Shelley and little Florence and to say " goodbye "
which I hate. Lady S. is out and out and out a
stunner of a delightful woman. . . .

1 Of H.R.H. the Prince of Wales to Princess Alexandra of
Denmark.

280

CHAPTER XI
June to December, 1863

ENGLAND

Lear to Fortescue.

ANCONA. 7 a.m. 8 June, 1863.

YOU see I am on my way so far, and I suppose I
may be in England on Friday and in town on
Saturday. So that I shall hope to see you and Lady
Waldegrave on Sunday.

I have wearied awfully of the sea voyage and do
so more and more. Perhaps the whole stagnation of
a week or more besides the actual physical nuisance,
makes me determined to put an end to this double
"journey of life." But where I must live, so as to live
only in one place I can't yet decide.

. . . The farther I go from Corfu the more I look
back to the delight its beautiful quiet has so long
given me, and I am by no means approaching the
filth and horror and noise of London life with a
becoming spirit.

Sitting next to the Captain of an Austrian Frigate

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Letters of Edward Lear

at Sir H. Stork's on Thursday evening the German
officer said to a subaltern (the conversation was
about the good looks of women) " I do think the
Englishwoman conserve her aperient Galship longer
than all the women : even as far as her Antics."

The subaltern withered with confusion till I ven-
tured to explain,

" The Englishwoman preserves her appearance of
youth longer than all women even if she be old."

TURIN. Wednesday 17 June, 1863.

You will be sorry to know from this that I have
been lying here very ill this is the 9th day. I think
I wrote to you from Ancona on the 8th when I landed
from Corfu intending to come on at once to Paris
and London. But as yet V. Emmanuel's govt. has not
been able to put a stop to all the old remains of Papal
torture, one of which was to examine the goods of
travellers in the middle of the road on leaving Ancona
(Ancona being a free town). So I had to undergo
this at noon, and having no servant and heavy boxes
to unstrap, half an hour in the great heat knocked me
up with a sunstroke.

I came on here, but grew worse and worse : and I
did not think I should live. I believe now however
that I may get over the attack tho' I cannot tell when
I shall be able to travel.

You may suppose my plans for London season are
all gone to the winds. I often thank God that
although he has given me a nature easily worried by

282

England

small matters, yet in cases such as this I go on day
after day quite calmly, only thankful that I do not
suffer more.

It is an odd full stop to my triumphant 8 weeks'
success in the Island tour. . . .

Aug: 5, 1863.

I met Ld. Kirkwall yesterday afternoon in Pall
Mall. He was going to harangue about Sir H. S.
when I said, " I saw much more of Sir Henry than in
the year you were in Corfu and I not only like him
very much, but think him an A. No. i Governor"
whereat he dropped my hand and collapsed.

A moth has crossed my paper, so I must go and
kill him.

Lear to Fortescue.

HASTINGS,

Aug. 9, 1863.

I had thought of writing out my 6 island journal
here, but I am so ill at ease that I shall do neither
that nor anything else I believe. . . .

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Letters of Edward Lear

My plan was to bring out a work consisting of 20
Ionian views. . . .

This collection would, you see, have given the
beastly public all that was most characteristic of the
Islands : and, being well done, if at all, would keep up
my prestige as a draftsman of Mediterranean scenery
and would, moreover, hold up or pave a way to my
more general smallersized Topography of Greece, to
be one day printed with my Journals. But, as above
related, everything is in Noobibus as yet, and I, as
you may guess, grow more and more vexed perpetual.

This place, or rather this part of it, is also growing
more and more odious. Since a huge hotel has been
built, I assure you to walk in the evening is precisely
like going into Regent St. or Piccadilly nay, rather
Cheapside. Nothing like "the country " do I enjoy in
England nowadays. London is introduced and ground
into every life far or near. It seems to me therefore
. . . that I shall . . . betake myself back to London
until I go southward : first however, taking some 6
or 8 views of this once lovely place as of one I shall
not easily come to again. . . .

Society here is rabid with bigotry & bother ; &

moreover is altogether oppressed with W &

passonic tendencies. Everybody thinks as old Lady
Waldegrave 1 chooses except those exactly antagon-

1 Sarah, widow of Edward Milward, of Hastings, and daughter
of the Rev. W. Whitear, Prebendary of Chichester, married
as his second wife the eighth Earl Waldegrave, uncle and
successor of Frances Countess Waldegrave's husband, the
seventh Earl.

284

England

istic, such as High Church & R. Catholics, concerning
which latter there is the devil of a fuss. For the
Dow ger Duchess of Leeds has come to live here in
the Convent, (where Cardinal W. also comes at
times) and is buying land "all over the place" to
the rage & horror of the Hastings folk. I can't help
laughing at the last thing she has done viz : to
purchase a large house just opposite old Lady W.'s.
& next door to the raging Low Church Lady
W.'s particular preserve for a Jesuit Seminary!!!!!
Between Colenso & the Duchess of L. all Hastings
is all but gone frantic. . . . The people of the
lodgings have nevertheless conceived a favourable
idea of my piety by seeing " La vie de Jesus " on
my table (by the bye I beg you will read it
carefully), little conceiving the opposition of that
volume to their views & their topics of faith. Ernest
Renan is assuredly "a Clayver man. ..."

Squiggs. Beetles. Bother. Bullfrogs. Butter-
cups. Let us change the subject.

14, August, 1863.

I was erjoiced to get your letter today. ... I
tookarookarook this paper to write a decent letter
but can't go on candles kill me, and I have no lamp.

Only thanks for the Ionian Judges their papers. 1
Winkins ! Xidian 2 is a one-er he is ! & spite of

1 Correspondence and papers relative to the summary
removal of the Ionian Judges by Sir Henry Storks.

2 One of the removed Judges.

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Letters of Edward Lear

Count Metaxa's l friendship, he ought to have been
suspended long ago if a twentieth part of what
Kapovao 2 says is true. A small bird however had
told me that enormities were to be expected, so it
wasn't surprised I was. To my thinking Sir H. S.
has simply done a very evident public duty cour-
ageously. Sargent and Colquhoun I imagine won't
delight in their descriptions. Kapovao has always
been described to me as a man of great character
and firmness and so meseems he is by token of
these papers.

1 6 August.

I am all at sea, bother. These rooms are let to a
family with 497 children, and I have to turn out on
Tuesday. . . . English country house visiting is
well for the idle and rich. I'll no more of it.

As soon as I get back to town, I either resolve on
and set to work on this Lithograph volume or I
don't, and go abroad. If the former, I dorit stir out
of London till its DONEDONE DONE so
don't ask me.

Concentrate your ideas if you want to do anything
well, and don't run about, as the Tortoise said to the
Armadillo.

fi?tStav 3 and case is certainly amazing. " Save me
from my friends ! " well may he say to Lord Derby
and the " Saturday Review."

1 Count Jean-Baptiste Metaxa, a member 01 one of the most
powerful families in the Ionian Isles, became a naturalised
Englishman in 1846. a Caruso. 3 Xidian.

286

England

Edward Wilson * has been staying here, and I saw
a good deal of him : a singular man. He showed me
the Petition 2 which came down here for him to sign,
and you have doubtless seen another " Times " letter
of his. I saw the replies you mention. Not under-
standing these things fully it appears to me that it
would be better for the Imperial Govt. to disgust one
Colony by not giving it convicts, than to disgust all
the other Colonies in Australia by the opposite line.
If the transportation of convicts "must cease" before
many years why not try to legislate for that fact now.
However, E. Wilson and I don't agree on many
points, as you may suppose when he says / am a Tory.
His energy is instructive. We went to see mills and
farms and bulls and hydraulic botherations drains
and other statistic beastlinesses, here ; and now he is
off for cattle to Alderney : to inspect oyster beds at
St. Malo : some mines at Vichy : some agricultural in-
ventions near Montpelier : a garden of acclimatization
at Stuttgard and something else at Rotterdam before
he returns to sail from Liverpool early in October.
... By yesterday's Gazette I see Miss Lascelles 3

1 He emigrated to Melbourne in 1842, and took a prominent
part in public life in Australia. He strongly opposed the influx
of convicts from Tasmania, which led to the Convict Prevention
Act.

2 Protesting against all our worst criminals being sent to
Western Australia, as had just been advocated in the Report of
the Commissioners on Penal Discipline.

3 Miss Emma Lascelles, who married in 1865 Lord Edward
Cavendish, the third son of the Duke of Devonshire.

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Letters of Edward Lear

is Maid of Honour " vice " Honble Adelaide Caven-
dish resigned. Now, you don't see how that interests
me you don't, you don't, you don't ! But it does
werry and one day you'll see why you will, you
will, you will.

I expect to hear Xidian and Marcoran and Caruso
will all murder each other promiscuous. How are the
elections going on there, I wonder. 1 . . .

What would Neptune say if they deprived him of
the sea ?

" I haven't a n/otion ! "

1 Sir Henry Storks dissolved the Ionian Parliament on the
6th of August, and summoned a new one, in order to ascertain
in a formal manner the wishes of the people regarding the
cession to Greece, the Great Powers having already signified
their assent to this proposition at a Conference held in London
in June^

288

England

I asked the girl here (having a friend to dine,
and wishing to have the wine cool) for some ice.
But she thought I said, " I want some mice / " and
was seized with great fear forthwith.

15, STRATFORD PLACE, OXFORD ST.

6 September 1863.

I want you to write to Lord Palmer ston to ask him
to ask the Queen to ask the King of Greece l to give
me a " place." As I never asked anything of you
before, I think I may rely on your doing this for me.
I wish the place to be created a-purpos for me, and
the title to be 6 ''Apxavontna^vapiairotog, 2 with per-
mission to wear a fool's cap (or mitre) 3 pounds of
butter yearly and a little pig, and a small donkey to
ride on. Please don't forget all this, as I have set
my heart on it.

I see by the " Observer " of today that the King of
Greece is to come to Windsor or Balmoral about the
1 5th, and that the vote of the Ifonian] Parliament
cannot be taken before the 2nd or 3rd week in
October after which he is to go to Athens. If I
hear before that, that we (the English in the 7 islands)
are likely to clear out before Christmas, it will make a
great difference to me for I then should not take out
drawings or copies of my new work. So let me know,
as far as you may with properriety.

I finished my third view yesterday, 17 now remain-

1 Prince George of Denmark was proclaimed King of Greece
at Athens on the 3oth of March.
8 Lord High bosh and nonsense producer.

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Letters of Edward Lear

ing : and I should have begun the 4th if a brute of an
Irishman (the member for Louth it was) hadn't inter-
rupted me. I was however consoled for this by his
bringing me photographs of two of my friends, both
of which (i.e. the photographs) I like better the more
I see of them. Yours however is not altogether right,
but my lady's is very exact. Only I could feel inclined
to cut the head of it into a vignette. The large
dresses of the day never look well photographed, for
in themselves they are so monstrous that only the
movement of a live woman can make them approxi-
mate to a human figure at all, and that movement of
course can't be given in photography or art, so that
the portrait of a sitting lady in a crinoline always
looks as if she were a dwarf walking. I shall there-
fore make a vignette : the face is the very best I have
seen photographed for a long time but the white
feather catches the eye and should be toned down a
bit selon moi.

I go on reading C. Lever stujously : he's a wonder-
ful fellow. No novels have interested me so much
since my early days of devouring W. Scott's. To
enter into a great part of the delights of his descrip-
tions however, one must have lived a good deal
abroad and also it behoves one to appreciate Irish
character completely, which, perhaps thanks to my
Gt.Gt.Gt.Gt.Gt.Gt.grandfather Usher I can do.

The " Knight of Wynne" is delightful, and now I am
reading "The Daltons." Mrs. Ricketts is a picture
from life. so' well drawn as to keep me in a scream of

290

H S 1

England

laughter. I think you knew her or saw her Mrs.

S of L . Purvis is one of her set. She was

a horrid animal and deserved even worse showing up.

How do you think I am going to pass my Sunday?
In a long walk up to Highgate, where I shall go and
look at my dear sister's grave, which I always mean
to do. The greatest blessing that ever happened to
me was being here when she died. . . .

No more thyme.

P.S. I perceive that Septembers are variously
passed in this life. Sept. 1861 I painted all day
lived upon soles and whitings, and read Greek morn-
ing and evening.

Sept. 1862. I dawdled all day at people's houses,
lived upon luxuries, and made a book of nonsense,
morning and evening.

Sept. 1863. I lithograph all day : live upon cold
mutton and read Lever.

15, STRATFORD PLACE, OXFORD STREET,

14 Sept., 1863.

I fear the New Zealand bothers l are recommencing
and no mistake. The Southern islanders are happy
to be out of all that confusion. I have had 2 letters
"North" and "South" sent me by my sisters this
last week, both shocking enough.

Bye the bye, one of the oddest feelings I can
remember to have encountered came to me by a

1 This year saw the commencement of a little war with the
Maoris, arising out of the question of the English appropriation
of waste lands.

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Letters of Edward Lear

circumstance last Monday. On the Sunday, I had
gone to Highgate Cemetery to see about my dear
sister Ann's grave, and returning, perceived afar,
that the old House I was born in, (its gardens and
paddocks were long ago destroyed by new roads and
buildings,) was advertised for sale as building materials,
4 houses to be raised on its site. So the follow-
ing day I went up there, and all over it : and I can
assure you, the annihilation of time which seeing such
early-known localities produced was curious, and made
me afterwards thoughtful enough. As I stood in
various parts of the large empty rooms, I could
absolutely hear and see voices and persons, and could
(had I had a pen and ink paper and time,) have
written out months and years of life nearly 50 years
ago, exactly and positively. (The old woman who
shewed the house seemed horribly puzzled at my
knowing all the odd closets and doors etc : and
received 2/6 with a mixture of pleasure and fear.). . . .
I must go and finish the 7th lithograph wo is me.
. . . This work is so filthy too. I shall never be
clean again. When it is done, I
shall sit 10 days in a warm water
pot, covered with a covering
and receive my friends thus

Bye the bye when I left Corfu, Sir H. S. asked
me if I would take some dispatches " Would you
like to take some dispatches, Mr. Lear?" I re-
member saying "No Sir" in a tone like "God
forbid Sir ! " but what should I have said ?

292

England

For fescue to Lear.

Sep. i$th, 1863.

LITHOGRAPHIC LEAR, How do you get on ? I hope
you have found "sermons in stones and good in
everything." . . . Come to us then, Lithographic
Lear, upon the Mosaic Sabbath, and pass here the
Sabbath of Shaftesbury.

Sept. 16, 1863.

DEAR 4OSCUE, Gracious grease pots! I've just
done the 8th lithograph, and have put the tracing on
for the Qth, so, while that is drying, I've run up here
to write a line.

Do you see you are a rattlesnakist ? Leastwise
your chief is. In the " Times " of today E. Wilson
compares the Convicts to a rattlesnake, and the Duke l
to them as throws them into a babby's bed. The
reptile is to be chopped up but the thrower is to be
worse dealt with. I wish though seriously, you could
find some new place for the convicts. What a bore
they are. What a bore everything is particularly
lithography.

I disclose a proof of my first prospectus. 2 . . . I've
got 4 subscribers to begin with meanwhile, which is
something on the way to 600. Never mind. Percy -
weer.

Goodbye, von Louth ... in a nurry.

1 The Duke of Newcastle, Secretary of State for the Colonies.
a "Views of the Seven Ionian Islands," published 1863.

293

Letters of Edward Lear

Sept., 1863.

I came to " leave a card " on you, as you ax'd me
to the dinner yesterday so here it is

I was disgusted at being aperiently so rude to Lady
Waldegrave but I was not well from the East winds,
and so completely uncertain whether I had any voice
or not, that I thought it better not to sing, than to go
to the piano and be obliged to quit it. I felt like a
cow who has swallowed a glass bottle or a boiled
weasel and should probably have made a noise like
a dyspeptic mouse in a fit.

But I passed a very pleasant evening, and was
delighted with Lady Waldegrave's perfectly natural
and kind manner. I should have liked to sit next to
you, but I couldn't resist moving up to my next neigh-
bour. I came out purposing to leave cards at Carlton
Gardens so I shall do so, though I know the Lady is
out, for I nearly ran under the veels of her Chariot
just now, whereby she made me a bough.

I must add that I think your room looks extremely

294

England

pretty and the Pigchr is stunning as it hangs now.
How nicely you have had the " Morn broadens " done
as to frame.

There was an old man who said, " How,
Shall I flee from this terrible cow ?

I will sit on this stile

And continue to smile
Which may soften the heart of that cow."

What's the difference between the Czar and the
" Times " paper ? One is the type of Despotism : the
other the despotism of Type.

What is the difference between a hen and a kitchen-
maid? One is a domestic fowl, the other a foul
domestic.

Why need you not starve in the Desert ? Because

295

Letters of Edward Lear

you might eat all the Sand which is there. Why are
the Sandwiches there ? Because there the family of
Ham was bread and mustard.

Fortescue to Lear.

DUDBROOK,

BRENTWOOD,

22 November, 1863.

I saw the Duke of N. (who is in very bad health) in
London, and asked him about Corfu. He says all
will go well, in spite of the usual ill-conditioned child-
ishness of the Assembly but that the settlement of
the Treaty with Greece will take time that between
the Great Powers is signed already. Lord Russell
says that the troops will not be away before April.

Lear to Fortescue.

Jany, i, 1864.

The woes of life. I am off unexpectedly ... an
acquaintance (Wade-Brown of the Guards,) goes to-
morrow all the way to Corfu, so I decided on flitting.
Hard work packing, etc : etc : in a day ! but it was
harder and sadder to write, write, write, to the remain-
ing 50 of my subscribers, who naturally think 3 guineas
can be nothing, forgetting that 1 50 guineas are much.

You will be happy to hear that I have put by ^300,
and therefore am entitled annually to 9 all my life.
I would not go through what I have again for ^9000
a year. But having seen fit to begin a work, I went
through with it. ...

296

CHAPTER XII
January to April, 1864

LAST VISIT TO CORFU

Lear to Fortescue.

CORFU. loth January 1864.

I CAME here yesterday at noon . . . the passage
to Calais was dreadful, nor could we pass the
bar until too late to catch the afternoon train to Paris.
Hence 13 hours of an at-e very-station -stopping train,
and consequent obligation to sleep at Paris all the
following day till noon. Paris was cold too, but
that fact gave me an opportunity of seeing the
Prince Imperial, 1 who, in a carriage and four, stopped
to gaze at the swans in the Tuileries gardens, ice-
begirt and crumb-desiring. Lots of little gamins
stopped also and inspected the imperial child as he
did the swans. . . .

George Cocali was all ready for me, and today
everything is so regular and matter of-course that
I don't seem to have been absent an hour. The

1 Napoleon Eugene Louis, only son of Napoleon III., born
1856, killed in Zululand June i, 1879.

297

Letters of Edward Lear

odd pounds extra, purchase comfort in home and
service very cheaply. . . . The domestic intelligence
I have heard is that Colquhoun still holds off the
Palace but the Sargents have had a formal recon-
ciliation with the Lord High Lady S. not being,
I should imagine, either able or inclined to forfeit
any amount of social position. . . .

Monday, nth. I dined at the Palace yester-
day. . . . Sir Henry was as ever absolutely amiable
and gentlemanlike, or as some one here says, he
" never forgets that he is the representative of the
Queen for one moment."

Alas ! as for Corfu I can say little yet : all the less
that 10 shillings worth of letters have just come full
of Post Office Orders and cheques from " silly swells "
who couldnt pay their subscriptions 3 weeks ago
however I entreated them to do so.

But there is not only great excitement here, great
sorrow and perplexity also, and discomfort. And, it
seems to me, unless you governing folk shew a little
less hard redtapism to these islands verily, their
cession will be a millstone about the neck of the
liberal party for long days to come. It is however
so very difficult to gather or sift untruth from truth,
and we are all so in the dark as to what is to take
place, that it is simply folly to talk or write. Yet it
is the first time I have ever seen a community so
singularly and uncomfortably placed. . . . (Sir H. S.
takes 10 copies of my book, which is highly brick-
like). . . .

298

Last Visit to Corfu

15 January 1864.

Feby. 7. The good intents of the above date never
bore fruit an unprolific datetree. . . . On Friday
evening the Lord High sent me your letters of the
1 7th and 26th, so I shall write today instead of going
to church, relaxing my labour from time to time by
snatches of the " Daily Telegraph," Kenan's Jesus,
Miss Rowan's Meditations on Death, Newman's
Phases of Faith, Froude's Elizabeth, and Colenso's
4th part. And the better my beloved brethren to
set forth the varied subjects which I shall bring under
your consideration, I shall first proceed to look through
your letter, and reply more or less to the heads thereof.

My flight it seems was by no means too soon . . .
yet after 7 months of darkness and filth you will all as
usual talk about the " climate of England " as the
"best in the world." So God tempereth the wind to
the shorn lamb : so the Esquimaux believes that train
oil is before all food the most excellent.

Your account of the gaieties at Strawberry Hill are
a pleasant contrast to the misery and bitter cold one
reads of all over the kingdom. . . . The dance must
have looked well. . . , (Talking of dances, the last
6 \ff\aroQ \opoq ) was given by Sir H. S. on Friday
night. I was not well enough to go, or I could have
well liked to see the latest sparks of Anglo- Corfiote
gaiety ere all goes out in darkness. . . .

The poor Duke of Newcastle! I extracted the
lines you wrote about him, and sent what I had
copied to Sir Henrv, who wrote back a few words :

299

Letters of Edward Lear

he is much distressed about the Duke's health. I had
supposed Lord Wodehouse l would succeed him.
Who would be if any the House of Commons
possible Colonial Secretary ? 2 I hope whoever he
may be in the Peers, that you will keep your place :
the labor which that involves during a part of the
year is in my humble opinion compensated for by
other good. I should have been glad to see you a
Cabinet minister, because I have always believed
you would do good as such. What does my lady
say ? I wish she had a more decided turn for colonial
politics, for in spite of H.I.M. Nap. 3's assertion that
it is the mission of woman to think of God and not of
the world, I believe that women of talent do and can
do and have done, a vast amount of good in the
political atmosphere. (They also do a devilish deal
of harm, as I should think the said Emperor knows
well.) However, let me know what you do. Most
probably you will be saved any decision before long,
by a Derby govt. coming in for a time : tho' after
that, Gladstone is the coming man (&a TO tear !/).3

You ask about the state of public feeling here, a
question not easy to answer. The decree about the
non-destruction of the forts of course was soothing,
but (I judge only by Lady W.'s talk, as she seems
to me ever to hold a brief of hatred for the Greeks),
they say " no thanks to the English for that : you

1 Undersecretary of State for Foreign Affairs, 1859-61.

2 The Duke of Newcastle resigned in March for reasons of
health, and Mr. Cardwell succeeded him. 3 According to me.

300

J ?

Last Visit to Corfu

wished \.o leave the place in ruin, but the K. of Greece
threatened to go if you did, and you were forced
to give way," which I suppose is bosh. Lady W.
denies we have ever done any good here but when
I stop this nonsense by saying, " Well, well, at all
events then if we have been as bad as you say, the
ground will soon be cleared of us " she instantly
turns round and says " but nobody wants you to go
your going will occasion great misery etc : etc : "
" Then why did the Ionian Parliament continually
vote for annexation ? " " Parliament indeed ! " she
answers "do you call 42 or 50 democrats public
opinion ? " " Then why," say I, " if that is so trifling,
why did not the lonians prevent its eternal repetition
by electing other deputati ? " On which she says " but
do take some coffee," and twists the converse all awry.
Meanwhile the cannon are all taken down from the
Fort Neuf etc : etc : and as soon as the 6th go (under
orders for Jamaica), Vido will be emptied and blown
up or down. There are however many who have
no belief^, all in our ultimate departure. The Turk
Albanian Beys opposite go into strong convulsions of
laughter at the idea, (so officers tell me who come from
Parga, Delvino etc : ) and a mass of the lower orders
here also do not credit it, but believe some dodges will
turn up and keep us in the islands, or at all events in
this island. On the other hand, dismay and distress
pervade whole classes. Domestic servants, yachtsmen,
innkeepers, small shops etc : etc : see before them
simply blank new beginnings of life how or where

301

Letters of Edward Lear

they know not. My man's whole family think of
migrating to Patras, or the Piraeus. The warlike
Danish-German news of the last few days r compli-
cates matters still more. It will be funny if war with
Austria arises, and a fleet come down from Cattaro
and chaw us up suddenly, when the guns are
gone.

As for poor Sir Henry Storks, you say well, he will
be glad to go indeed. I know of no position much
sadder than his for nearly five years working hard
always, with a self-negation and conscientiousness not
to be surpassed. Yet it may be truly said that he lives
a life of most painful loneliness, all the more dreary
that his efforts to do right as a public man have been
met with such small appreciation by the British fool,
not to say by abuse from those who should have
known better than to make grave matters of right
and wrong, handles for mere party violence. The
2 A.D.C.s (Baring 2 and Strahan3) are valuable to
Sir H. S., but, tho' very clever, they are young.
/ think that any letter you write to him now he will
be pleased with : the Duke's illness affects him, and
he seems to me to feel any kindness coming from

1 The dispute about the Schleswig-Holstein succession,
plunged Denmark into war with Germany and Austria in the
spring of this year, and for a time there was a fear that England
might also be involved.

2 Now Lord Cromer, whose later history has been the history
of Egypt.

3 Afterwards Governor of Tasmania, the Windwards Isles,
&c., &c.

3O2

Last Visit to Corfu

England ; and I think too that much which has been
said and written of him by people or with the know-
ledge of people who were once his friends, has hurt
him at times a good deal. So, q.e.d. as you say
Storks will be glad to get away. . . .

My life here (barring blowing my nose and lying in
bed ill,) has been of the most regular order, and it is
a grim fact that never more when I go hence can
I look for similar "there is no joy but calm." . . .
Having " put by " ^300 9 a year for life is the
result of my labor but qua ready money, and the
necessity of getting it by work, things are as they
were before the fathers fell asleep. . . .

The new Italian Consul's wife or sister plays in the
most beanlike and beneficial manner. By April or
May at furthest, I shall hope to be fixed as to fixing
or unfixing : perhaps I may go about in an unfixed mode
continually and evermore. What's the odds ? . . .
The two or three months of hard writing before
I left England have sickened me of pen and ink,
and I shall henceforth write MUCH LESS than formerly.
Please to accept this as a nintimation or warning.
Have you read Abbe Michaud's " Maudit"? Burton's
Abeokuta ? Speke's Nile ? Froude's Elizabeth ?
Kingsley's Water babies ? I aive. . . . Catch then o
catch the transient owr, improve each momient as
it flies, man's a short summer life's a flower, he dize
alas ! how soon e dize. Goodbye.

P.S. I will go to church this afternoon to pray
that your toes may not be frozen off, and that it

303

Letters of Edward Lear

may please God to shew you the sun once or twice in
the next 4 months.

March 31. 1864 (6 a.m.)

Your letter of the 24th came yesterday, and I
communicated its sad contents to Sir Henry. Poor
Duke of Newcastle ! A life of no great joy has his
been : I am all the more interested about him just
now that I have been reading Kinglake's Crimea. 1
But who would be Under-Secretary if Cardwell 2 is
C. O. Secy ? I had fancied at times that in that case
you might be "called to the Upper House," and keep
your place. However, as at no very great distance
there must be still greater changes, you would turn up
I suppose in some fresh formation of a Ministry. I
somehow don't like your sitting down at 41 into
private life the more that your last speech as I read
it in the " Times " on Gregory's motion, was about
the best I think you ever made.

I don't ever wonder at your not writing. I only
wonder anybody ever writes at all. For myself I have
had such a dreadful dose of it last year about that
book, and am still hopelessly endeavouring to get
in subscriptions, that I abhor the sight of a pen, and if
I were an angel I would immediately moult all my
quills for fear of their being used in calligraphy. . . .

1 The Duke of Newcastle undertook the charge of the War
Department when the Crimean War broke out.

2 W. E. Forster and Sir F. L. Rogers were the Under- Secre-
taries when Mr. Cardwell was at the head of the Colonial
Office.

304

Last Visit to Corfu

My beautiful rooms are already taken by others,
so there is an end of Corfu life, and this is the last
letter you will most probably ever receive from the
Island.

I am not yet certain if I shall go straight to Athens
and then . . . return to Syra and so to Crete. . . .
After some 6 or 7 weeks in Crete, I should in any
case return to Athens, and there look about for
a possible winter home. . . . To make a future winter
settlement nearer England is difficult Nice is
crowded and Anglo-vulgar : Rome and its priests,
as well as its forced art-quackery atmosphere I
detest. . . . You see therefore that as the little fish
said in the Pacific, I am at sea : nor will much
more be assured till I have been to visit the owls of
Minerva.

And indeed glad shall I be to go. The place is
all altered and sad and there is no pleasure to me in
seeing the daily explosions and ruins of fine masonry
and picturesque lines. Moreover the angry and
violent feeling against everything English is disagree-
able, tho' it is not so general as it seems. You know
I dare say that the Bishop (always the prime agitator
for the Union,) is now the head of a very ferocious
Club, who are publishing a paper of the utmost
virulence against us, calculated to stir up all the
idle and intriguing in our disfavour. Such " facts " as
the open insulting of " Greek " women on the
Esplanade by " parties of brutal English sailors "
might excite your astonishment, as they do mine :

305 x

Letters of Edward Lear

but in the present state of things the assertion of good
old Basilia Kokali (my servant's mother,) that in
50 years of English rule she has never known one
female insulted by soldiers or sailors, goes for
nothing.

The truth seems to me this : A great party,
naturally regretting the English going and more-
over, another party who desired it but yet justly
appreciated our actions, would all have united to
make public demonstrations of respect and friend-
liness etc : on our leaving the island. This I know
to be the case from various people who declare they
are grieved that they cannot now make any manifes-
tation in our favour. The handle given by the
Fortress dismantling to the democratic party, is
therefore one I believe they are delighted to get.
It is of course of great importance to the annexation
party that no demonstration in an opposite sense, or
such as could by any possibility be construed should
be made : and now I do not expect any one will dare
openly wish us *' Godspeed."

For myself I avoid as much as I can speaking
on the subject at all, but I cannot avoid making
allowances for those who are constantly having the
irritating sight of the forts being blown up now
for many weeks the almost daily object nor can
I wonder at their vexation when they hear of parties
going over "to see the beautiful blow up, "etc: etc:
When I am forced into talking, I do all I can (as
Mr. Gregory didn't) to show them how far better

306

Last Visit to Corfu

it would be to weigh this fortress Wrong if wrong it
be against the benefits England has given them, a
useless task however, in their present mood. " Do
you think" said one to me, "that if you give me a
thousand pounds, and then box my ears, that the
last act would not outweigh the first although
in itself the last is trifling." But the very addition
to this which a second speaker instantly gave, con-
vinced me that I am right in believing the " Fortress
Question" is a godsend to the violent party. The
speaker was an amiable man and desirous of softening
down his friend's observations. "In somma," said
he, " la politica esige che si alza la voce contro
1'Inghilterra." l It is I think, much to be regretted
that this " alzando la voce " was so supplied them
by ourselves.

Meanwhile the mass of the people behave quite
well, and individually nothing uncourteous is said
or done to anyone. Sir Henry walks about every-
where, and is treated with the same respect as ever.
He is a splendid fellow, and has a most difficult
part to play for C. and others nameless, who
should work with him are against him. I suppose
you will make him a " Barnet " as Lady Young used
to say, or a Peer if he goes to any higher post.
If ever he goes to Ceylon I will certainly then go out
to India. . . . The reports here of all possible sorts
are endless ; Woodhouse, Taylor Sanders, are named

1 " In short politics exact, that our voices should be raised
against England."

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Letters of Edward Lear

as to be the consul. " The church is to be turned into
a theatre as a mark of disprezzo " etc : So you see,
the place is all breaking up and blowing up and
bebothered and boshed.

. . . Poor Christo Kokali, my man's brother, ill of
consumption for four years, has now it seems really
taken to die. And George has therefore a double
journey to his mother's daily, and to sit up all night
besides the lots of rough extra work all this "exodus"
begets. Thunderstorms and violent squalls make life
disgusting : add also that a gas company has turned
up all the streets for pipes, and as I fall into the
beastly trenches, I can say truly "you have piped unto
me, but I have not danced." . . . Goodbye, my last
furniture is going. I shall sit upon an eggcup and
eat my breakfast with a pen. . . .

HOTEL DE LA COURONNE. ATHENS.

April 8 1864.

I hope you got a letter from me just before I left
Corfu, of which place I am now cut adrift, though
I cannot write the name without a sort of pang.
Nothing could be sadder or more painful and vexing
than the latter days I passed there. Everyone either
miserable for going away or miserable at being
left : while angry passions and suppressed violence
were abundant, The brutal old Dandolo l put forth
three days before I came off the foulest pamphlet

1 One of the leaders of the extreme Radicals and Anglophobes
in the Ionian Parliament.

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Last Visit to Corfu

against England a man could read, (dated of course
prior to the explanatory discussion in the House
though he knew very well doubtless that he was
writing lies) You may judge of the tone of this letter
(to Lord Russell), when I tell you besides that it
touched on all the crimes, real and imputed, which
have been considered English for centuries of history
that its last words are " we lonians thank you
that you have left us our hands and tongues ; with the
one to write your infamy with the other to utter
threefold curses on your head." Poor Lord John !
I hope he will survive that.

April 24, 1864. KHALIFA, NEAR KHANIA, CRETE.
I was not able to finish this letter before I left
Athens . . . Before I left Corfu I was quite sure that
a great the greatest part of the ill-feeling against
us was brought out by the insidious ways of certain
people. No governor of a province has ever had
a harder task than Sir H. Storks, whose conduct has
been in all respects A. No. i as Lord High Com-
missioner, and I shall always remember his kindness
to me gratefully.

THE END.

309

APPENDIX

The following is an incomplete list, for several pictures painted for my uncle and aunt,
Lord Clermont, and Sir Spencer Robinson are not included, and probably many
others of which I do not know, are also missing. This list, I believe, was drawn up
by Mr. Lear at San Remo for circulation among his friends and others, partly by
way of advertisement, and partly to give an idea of the work he had executed and
the patronage he had received. At this present time very few, if any, of those
named survive, but I have wished to reproduce this list exactly from the original,
made in 1877, by Mr. Lear.

PICTURES PAINTED, 1840-1877.
(1840)

Painted for, or Purchased by

1. Rome, from the Lateran The late R. A. Hornby, Esq.

2. Valmontone The late Lord Charles Bertie Percy.

3. Rome. Borghese Gardens Mrs. Pitney Martin.

4. Rome. Arco Oscuro Mrs. Pitney Martin.

5. Civitella di Subiaco Edward, Thirteenth Earl of Derby.

6. Olevano Edward, Thirteenth Earl of Derby.

(1841)

7. Rome, from the Lateran Lord Crewe.

8. Rome. Gardens of St. Buenaventura . . . Lord Crewe.

9. Rome. Tomb on the Campagna Lord Crewe.

10. Lord Crewe.

ii- Lord Crewe.

12. Lord Crewe.

13. Rome. Tomb near Porta Pia Thomas Tatton, Esq.

14. Rome. View from Monte Mario Thomas Tatton, Esq.

15. Olevano T. Bonham Carter, Esq.

16. St. Peter's, from D. Pamfili Gardens ... The late Lord Wenlock.
17- Licenza Rev. W. H. Empson.

Letters of Edward Lear

(1842)

Painted for, or Purchased by

18. Rome. Via Appia Mrs. Hudson.

19. Rome. Claudian Acqueduct Ralph Barnes, Esq.

20. Rome. Cecilia Metella The late Lady Hornby.

21. Rome. Tor di Schiavi The late Lady Hornby.

22. Rome. Tor di Schiavi The late T. G. Fonnereau, Esq.

23. Naples The late George Cartwright, Esq.

24. Amalfi The late George Cartwright, Esq.

25. Amalfi The late George Cartwright, Esq.

26. Cefalu. Sicily The late Colonel C. Hornby.

27. Rome. Campagna ... ... ... ... W. Hives, Esq.

28. Rome. Tomb near Porta Pia Rev. E. Goddard.

29. Rome. View from Monte Mario Rev. E. Goddard.

(1843)

30. Civitella di Subiaco The late Rev. James J. Hornby.

31. Civita Castellana The late Rev. James J. Hornby.

32. LakeofAlbano The late George Cartwright, Esq.

33. LakeofAlbano The late George Cartwright, Esq.

34. Lake of Fucino, Abruzzi The late M. J. Higgins, Esq.

35. Rome. Claudian Acqueduct The late M. J. Higgins, Esq.

36. Isola di Monte Corno, Abruzzi Miss Westcomb.

37. Nemi Miss Westcomb.

38. San Pelino. Abruzzi ... Lord Wenlock.

(1844)

39. Celano. Abruzzi . Lord Wenlock.

40. Monreale. Sicily ... The late Mrs. Huskisson.

41. Partenigo. Sicily The late Mrs. Huskisson.

42. Quarries of Syracuse ... ... ... The late Mrs. Huskisson.

43. Valmontone The late C. Scrace Dickens, Esq.

44. San Vito The late C. Scrace Dickens, Esq.

45. Frascati Miss Sarah Markham.

46. Pergolata, or Vine Terrace Mrs. Palmes.

(1845)

47. Valmontone Hon. Mrs. Greville-Howard.

48. Rome. La Madonna del Sorbo ... ... Hon. Mrs. Greville-Howard.

49. Rome. Claudian Acqueducts ... ... Samuel Gurney, Esq.

50. Rome. Tiber and Via Salara The late John Battersby Harford, Esq.

51. Rome. Veii The late Earl Canning.

52. Naples Earl of Dudley.

(1846)

53. Tivoli E. Carleton Holmes, Esq.

54. Caprarola Thomas Bell, Esq.

55. Rome. Tor Sant 'Eusebio The late General Rawdon.

312

Appendix

Painted for, or Purchased by

56. Girgenti. Sicily The late John S. Harford, Esq.

57. Antrodoco. Abruzzi The late Dowager Marchioness

Ormonde.

58. Pescina. Abruzzi T. Gambier Parry, Esq.

(1847)

59. Palermo. Sicily The late Peter F. Andre, Esq.

60. LakeofNemi The late Mrs. Huskisson.

61. Cerbara di Subiaco The late Mrs. Huskisson.

62. Rome. Madonna di Divin' Amore ... The late Baroness Windsor.

63. Rome. Via Tiburtina Charles Henry, Esq.

64 Rome. Claudian Acqueducts Charles Henry, Esq.

65. Arundel Henry Willett, Esq.

66. Tivoli. Villa d'Este Mrs. R. Markham.

67. Civitella di Subiaco Sir Francis H. Goldsmid, Bart., M.P.

68. Rome. Via Cassia The late William Earle, Esq.

69. Tivoli Mrs. Hornby.

70. Rome. Veii J. Ridgway, Esq.

71. Rome. Via Cassia J. Ridgway, Esq.

(1849)

72. Mount Sinai Rev. John E. Cross.

73. Rome. Claudian Acqueducts ... ., John G. Blencowe, Esq.

74. Rome. Claudian Acqueducts The late Miss Duckworth.

75. Akhrida. Albania The late Miss Duckworth.

76. Karytena. Greece Thomas Bell, Esq.

(1850)

77. Athens. The Acropolis Edward, Thirteenth Earl of Derby.

78. Corfu Lord Wenlock.

(1851)

79. Athens Lord Wenlock.

80. Sparta Lord Wenlock.

81. Girgenti. Sicily Thomas H. Wyatt, Esq.

82. Monastery of Meteora Henry Willett, Esq.

83. Pentedatelo. Calabria Sybilla, Lady Lyttelton.

84. Parnassus The late Richard, First Lord Westbury.

85. Rome. Via Appia William Langton, Esq.

86. Mount Tomohr. Albania Louisa, Lady Ashburton.

(1852)

87. Rome, near Ponte Mammolo Lady Caroline Legge.

88. Rome. Crescenza, or Poussin's Castle ... Mrs. E. Blackmore.

89. Taormina. Sicily The Hon. Mrs. Greville-Howard.

90. Venosa. Apulia The late Mrs. Empson.

313

Letters of Edward Lear

Painted for, or Purchased by

91. Reggio. Calabria ............ Mrs. William Rawson.

92. Thermopyloe. Greece ......... The late William F. Beadon, Esq.

93. Athens ............... The late G. R. Smith, Esq.

94. Argostoli. Kephalonia ......... Rev. H. P. Wright.

95. Marathon. Greece ......... Mrs. George Clive.

96. Quarries of Syracuse, Sicily ...... Alfred Tennyson, Esq., Poet Laureate,

&c.

97. Quarries of Syracuse, Sicily. (Art Union

Prize) ............... Earl of Beauchamp.

98. Mount Sinai ............ T. Gambier Parry, Esq.

99. Civitella di Subiaco, looking South ... Lord Carlingford.

100. Windsor Castle ............ Edward, Fourteenth Earl of Derby.

101. Nile, Philce, looking South ...... Alfred Seymour, Esq.

102. Nile, Kom Ombos ............ Earl of Northbrook.

(1854)

103. On the Nile ............... S. W. Clowes, Esq., M.P.

104. On the Nile ............... S. W. Clowes, Esq., M.P.

105. The Jungfrau, Interlaken ......... S. W. Clowes, Esq., M.P.

106. El Koorneh Thebes ......... Mrs. George Scrivens.

107. Pyramids of Ghizeh ......... The late Frederick North, Esq., M.P.

108. Pyramids of Ghizeh ......... The late Frederick North, Esq., M.P.

109. Monastir. Macedonia ......... S. W. Clowes, Esq., M.P.

no. Licenza ... ............ Lord Aberdare.

in. Rome. Via Nomentana ......... S. W. Clowes, Esq., M.P.

112. Temple of Bassse. Greece ...... Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.

(1855)

113. The Matterhorn ............ Bernard Husey-Hunt, Esq.

114. Nile. Philce, Morning, looking South ... The late Sir John Potter, M.P.

115. Nile. Philce, Morning, looking South ... Mrs. George Scrivens.

116. Nile. Philce, looking North ...... The late William Nevill, Esq.

117. Civitella di Subiaco, Sunrise ...... The late William Nevill, Esq.

(1856)

118. Nile. Philce, looking West ...... Henry F. Walter, Esq.

119. Nile. Philce, Morning, looking South ... George Clive, Esq., M.P.

120. Parnassus ............... Franklin Lushington, Esq.

121. Nile. Philce, Sunset, looking South ... Franklin Lushington, Esq.

122. Nile. Philce, Sunset, looking South ... The late Lord Lisgar.

123. Nile. Phiice, Sunset, looking South ... Lord Carlingford.

124. Nile. Kasr es Saad ......... The late Sir John Simeon, Bart., M.P.

125. Corfu, from Kastrades ......... Robert D. Drewitt, Esq.

314

Appendix

126. Corfu, from Ascension.

127. Corfu, from Gastouri

128. Corfu, from Gastouri

Painted for, or Purchased by
Morning ... Lady Reid.

The late General Mackintosh.

129. Corfu,

130. Corfu,

131. Mount

132. Corfu,

133. Mount

134. Corfu,

135. Corfu,

136. Mount

137. Philoe,

(1857)

from Ascension, Evening
from below Ascension

Athos

from Gastouri

Athos

from Ascension
from Ascension
Athos. Stavronikites
Sunset, looking South

T. William Evans, Esq., M.P.

Alfred Seymour, Esq.

The late Frederick North, Esq., M.P.

Henry F. Walter, Esq.

The late John Battersby Harford, Esq.

The late John Batterbsy Harford, Esq.

The late Mrs. Empson.

Edgar A. Drummond, Esq.

(1858)

138. Zagori, Albania Julian Goldsmid, Esq., M.P.

139. Philiates, Albania Thomas H. Wyatt, Esq.

140. Constantinople ... ... ... ... A. De Vere Beauclerk, Esq.

141. Mount Athos. St. Paul A. De Vere Beauclerk, Esq.

142. Mount Athos, Iviron A. De Vere Beauclerk, Esq.

143. Nile. Philce, Sunset, looking South ... Augustus Chetwode, Esq.

144. Corfu, from Garuna ... ... ... Edward Baring, Esq.

145. Corfu, from Kastrades Franklin Lushington, Esq.

146. Corfu, from below Ascension Franklin Lushington, Esq.

147. Joannina. Albania The late Sir John Simeon, Bart., M.P.

148. Jerusalem, Sunrise The late Sir James Reid.

149. Jerusalem, Sunset Frances, Countess Waldegrave.

150. Masada, on the Dead Sea, Sunset ... Frances, Countess Waldegrave.

151. Nile. Philoe, looking South, Sunset ... The late Captain Huish.

152. Jerusalem, Sunset Bernard Husey-Hunt, Esq.

153. Bethlehem Bernard Husey-Hunt, Esq.

154. Jerusalem Lord Clermont.

(1859)

155. Mount Athos Lord Clermont.

156. Corfu, from Ascension T. Bailey Potter, Esq., M.P.

157. Mount Athos. Pantokratora T. Bailey Potter, Esq., M.P.

158. Corfu, from Ascension ... The late S. Price Edwards, Esq.

159. Petra. The Theatre ... .- ... The late S. Price Edwards, Esq.

160. Rome. Claudian Acqueducts Arthur Heywood, Esq.

161. Petra. The Great Cliff Sir Thomas Fairbairn, Bart.

162. Parnassus Earl of Northbrook.

163. loannina. Albania Miss Yates

164. Rome. Via Appia Captain R. O'B. Jameson.

165. Palermo Lord Carlingford.

3IS

Letters of Edward Lear

(1860)

Painted for, or Purchased by

166. Palermo ... ... ... ... ... William R. Sandbach, Esq.

167. Palermo T. Bailey Potter, Esq., M.P.

168. MarSabbas... ... ... ... ... The late Captain Huish.

169. Rome. Quarries of Cerbara F. Waymouth Gibbs, Esq.

170. The Dead Sea George Clive, Esq., M.P.

171. Parnassus ... ' Harvie Farquhar, Esq.

172. Parnassus Lord Clermont.

173. Parnassus Lord Aberdare.

174. Rome. Alexandrian Acqueducts ... Henry R. Stansfeld, Esq.

175. Rome. The Tiber at Ponte Molle ... Henry R. Stansfeld, Esq.

176. Rome. Quarries of Cerbara Richard Bright, Esq., M.P.

177. Rome. The Tiber at Ponte Molle ... S. F. Widdington, Esq.

178. Nuneham Park, Oxford Frances, Countess Waldegrave.

179. Nuneham Park, Oxford Frances, Countess Waldegrave.

(1861)

180. Bethlehem S. Price Edwards, Esq.

181. Interlaken T. William Evans, Esq., M.P.

182. Beirut Edgar A. Drummond, Esq.

183. Damascus Thelate Humphrey Mildmay,Esq., M.P.

184. Masada, on the Dead Sea, Sunrise ... Sybilla, Lady Lyttelton.

185. Cedars of Lebanon Louisa, Lady Ashburton.

186. Villa Petraja, Florence Frances, Countess Waldegrave.

187. Schloss Elz. Moselle ... ... ... Mrs. Scrivens.

188. Mount Athos Mrs. Scrivens.

189. The Plain of Thebes The late W. Whitmore, Esq.

190. The Plain of Thebes George Clive, Esq., M.P.

191. The Dead Sea Lord Clermont.

192. The Matterhorn Franklin Lushington, Esq.

193. loannina. Albania ... Capt. R. O'B. Jameson.

(1862)

194. Florence Sir Thomas Fairbairn, Bart.

195. Mount Athos. S. Dionisio Sir Francis H. Goldsmid, Bart.

196. Nile. Philoe, Sunset, looking South ... Henry R. Grenfell, Esq.

197. Turin The late S. Price Edwards, Esq.

198. Corfu, from Ascension Admiral Sir R. Spencer Robinson.

199. Lake of Butrinto. Albania Dowager Viscountess Downe.

200. Corfu, from Ascension A. H. Novelli, Esq.

201. Corfu, from Ascension The late Miss Julia Goldsmid.

202. Corfu, from Ascension Major P. A. Reynolds.

203. loannina. Albania Sir Thomas Fairbairn, Bart.

204. Nile. Philce, Sunset, looking West ... H.R.II. Due d'Aumale.

205. Mount Olympus. Thessaly ... ... Edgar A. Drummond, Esq.

206. Corfu, from Gastouri Mrs. W. Prescott.

207. Corfu, from Ascension Mrs. W. Prescott.

316

Appendix

Painted for, or Purchased by

208. Corfu, from below Ascension Rev. John E. Cross.

209. Corfu, from Psorarus ... ... ... Admiral Sir Spencer Robinson.

210. Corfu, from Santa Dekka ... ... ... Rev. John E. Cross.

211. Mont Blanc. Pont Pellissar Charles S. Roundell, Esq.

212. The Dead Sea Charles S. Roundell, Esq.

213. Porto Tre Scoglie. Albania Franklin Lushington, Esq.

214. Beachy Head Henry R. Grenfell, Esq.

215. Argostoli. Kephalonia Lord Aberdare.

216. Campagna di Roma, Via Prenestina ... Sir Walter James, Bart.

217. Campagna di Roma, Tor de 'Schiavi ... Frances, Countess Waldegrave.

218. Jerusalem, from Mount Scopus The late S. Price Edwards, Esq.

219. Venice Frances, Countess Waldegrave.

220. Venice, Sunset Henry Willett, Esq.

221. Beirut Rev. J. Lomax Gibbs.

222. Beirut Rev. John E. Cross.

223. Cliffs of Cenc, Gozo Charles S. Roundell, Esq.

224. Campagna di Roma Sybilla, Lady Lyttelton.

225. Campagna di Roma ... ... ... Sybilla, Lady Lyttelton.

226. Cedars of Lebanon Charles S. Roundell, Esq.

(1869)

227. Piana Rocks, Corsica Sir Francis H. Goldsmid, Bart., M. P.

228. Bavella, Corsica ... ... ... ... Sir Francis H. Goldsmid, Bart., M.P.

229. Valdoniello, Corsica George S. Venables, Esq., M.P.

230. Bonifazio, Corsica Edward, Fifteenth Earl of Derby.

231. Nile. Sheikh Abadeh Lady Robinson.

232. Nile. Kasr es Saad ... George Brightwen, Esq.

(1871)

233. Nile. Negadeh Miss Ewart.

234. Nile. Bab el Kalabshe Miss C. Macdonald Lockhart.

235. Nile. El Luxor Rev. Walter Clay.

236. Citadel of Corfu Walter Evans, Esq.

(1872)

237. Nile Boat, before Sunrise Mr. Hooper.

238. Nile Boat, Mid-day George Drummond, Esq.

239. Corfu, from Ascension Edward, Fifteenth Earl of Derby.

240. Campagna di Roma. Quarries of Cerbara Walter Congreve, Esq.

241. Campagna di Roma. Quarries of Cerbara Walter Congreve, Esq.

242. Marathon. Greece Right Honourable W. E. Forster, M.P-

243. Thermopylae. Greece Augustus Harcourt, Esq.

244. Corfu Citadel Henry Kneeshaw, Esq.

245. Florence Mrs. Ramsay.

246. Mount Sinai C. Allanson Knight, Esq.

247. Damascus Duke of Argyll.

248. Beirut Mrs. William Rawson.

317

Letters of Edward Lear

, Painted for, or Purchased by

249. Ravenna Forest Charles S. Roundell, Esq.

250. Vintimiglia George Nicholl, Esq.

251. Nile. Kasr es Saad Captain Alfred M. Drummond.

252. Nile. Ibreem T. William Evans, Esq., M.P.

253. Nile. Sunset. First Cataract Ernest Noel, Esq., M.P.

254. Palermo ... ... ... ... ... Edgar A. Drummond, Esq.

255. Nile. Shadoofs Thomas Seeley, Esq., M.P.

256. Nile. Sakkias Thomas Seeley, Esq., M.P.

257. Nile. Kasr es Saad Louisa, I^ady Ashburton,

258. Coast of Albania

259. Corfu Franklin Lushington, Esq.

260. Corfu Franklin Lushir.gton, Esq.

261. Megaspelion. Greece Thomas Hanbury, Esq.

262. Bethlehem C. Allanson Knight, Esq.

263. Nile. Approach to Philce Miss C. Macdonald Lockhart.

264. Nile. Sunset, near Philoe Captain Alfred M. Drummond.

265. Valdoniello

266. Bethlehem

267. Bavella

268. Nile. Approach to Philoe Louisa, Lady Ashburton.

269. Nile. Sunset, near Philoe Franklin Lushington, Esq.

270. Blue Grotto. Capri W. Arnold Congreve, Esq.

271. Rome. Via Appia Hubert Congreve, Esq.

272. Pyramids of Ghizeh ... ... ... Earl of Northbrook.

2 73- Pyramids of Ghizeh Earl of Northbrook.

274. Plains of Bengal Earl of Northbrook.

275. Kinchingunga Lord Aberdare.

276. Kinchingunga Louisa, Lady Ashburton

277. Nile. Pharaoh's Bed

278. Nile. Approach to Philoe

279. Mont Blanc. Col de Balme

280. Mont Blanc. Cormayeur

281. Mont Blanc. Mer de Glace

282. Dead Sea, from Masada

283. Cedars of Lebanon

284. Rome. Buon Ricovero

285. Rome. Via Nomentana

286. Nile. Moonlight

287. Pisa

288. Lerici

289. Mount Hermon

290. Mount Athos

291. Bavella. Corsica

292. Parga

318

Appendix

THIS IS AN INCOMPLETE LIST OF THE WORKS
LEAR ILLUSTRATED

Illustrations of the Family of the Psittacida; 1832

J. Gould's Indian Pheasants 1832

Gould's European Birds and Toucans...
Testudinata, for Professor Bell

Bell's British Mammalia \. ... from 1833 to 1836

The volumes of Parrots, Monkeys, Cats, of the

"Naturalist's Library," editor S. W. Jardine

Views of Rome and its Environs. Two vols. 1841

Journal of a Landscape Painter in Albania * 1851

Journal of a Landscape Painter in Calabria *... ... ... ... ... 1852

J. E. Gray's Gleanings from the Menagerie at Knowsley Hall (the bird

portion) ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 1846

First Book of Nonsense * 1846

Second Book of Nonsense * 1846

Views of the Ionian Islands * 1863

Journal of a Landscape Painter in Corsica * 1870

More Nonsense Pictures, Rhymes, Botany, &c. * 1872

Laughable Lyrics : a fourth Book of Nonsense, &c. * 1877

After Lear's death.

Brought out by Lord Tennyson.

Poems by Alfred Lord Tennyson. Illustrated by Edward Lear 1889

The above list of publications were all illustrated by Lear, but those marked
with an asterisk were also written by him. In the capacity of an author, what
is said of him in the preface to ' ' Poems by Alfred Lord Tennyson " is true :
"Had Lear not been a painter, he might have been a popular and voluminous
author of books of a high and sterling literary value. They varv personal
adventure, gracefully told, with genuine research on topics of historical and
antiquarian interest." These Journals, which are amusing and excellent reading,
were very successful in their day.

Of his series of " Nonsense," many editions have appeared since their first
publication by Messrs. Warne & Co. in 1861, and I may mention that a further
one is now being printed by them.

319

INDEX

ABERDARE, Lord, see Bruce,

Henry
Academy, Royal, Lear joins

the schools, 22, 23
Albania, Lear's book on, xxix,

19,22

Albert, Prince, 214
Alfred, Prince, 259, 260
Ansted, Professor, 275
Antonelli, Cardinal, 158
Apulia, 3
Ardee, 52 if.
Ashburton, Lady (Miss Mc-

Kenzie), 117
Athanasian Creed, the 138, 190,

198
Athos, Mount, 38, 40 ff., 43, 49,

D'Aumale, Due, 36, 255, 261
Avellino, 3

BAALBEC, 109, no
Baring, see Cromer, Earl of
Baring, T., see North brook,

first Earl of
Basilicata, 3

Bassae, Lear's picture of, 155
Beachy Head, 248, 249
Beadon, Rev. F., 232
Beattie, Dr., 102
Beauclerk, Aubrey de Vere,

I3 1
Beaufort, Emily, 190, 193, 200

Bell, Professor, xviii, xxviii
Bennett, Rev. W. J. E., 30
Bethell, Lady, 118, 130

Bethell, Sir Richard (Lord
Westbury), 27, 28, 140, 145,
252, 253

Bethlehem, 108

Bizi, Sir Christopheros and
Lady Kalikopolos Biletti, 259

"Book of Nonsense, The,"
xiii, xxvi, xxvii, xxix, xxx,
180, 199, 205, 210, 212, 219,

222, 263

Bowen, Sir George Ferguson,

8, 9, 34, 39, 44, 5<>, 79, 131,

271
Bowyer, Sir George, 147, 165,

218, 250

Braham, Charles, 36, 51
Braham, John, 35
Braham, Ward, 115, 218
Braila, Sir Aristides and Lady,

258

Bright, John, 146
Bright, Richard, and Mrs., 126
Brooke's " Borneo," 28
Brougham, Lord, 201
Browning, Elizabeth Barrett,

128

Browning, Robert, 128, 169
Browning (son of Robert and

E. B. Browning), 193
Bruce, Colonel, 222, 269
Bruce, Henry (Lord Aberdare),

59, 260
Buller, Sir George and Lady,

69, 78, 81, 88, 207, 223, 226,

228
Bunsen, Baron and Baron ess, 63

321

Letters of Edward Lear

Bunsen, Theodore, 73, 74, 79
Burke, Major, Miss, and R. 6.,
245

CALABRIA, Lear's tour in, i ; his

volume on, xxix, 19
Campbell, Colonel, 73, 79, 81
Canning, Lady, wife of Lord

Canning, 211, 212
Canning, Lady, wife of Sir

Stratford Canning, 12
Canning, Lord, 8, 118, 135
Canning, Sir Stratford, see

Stratford de Redcliffe, Lord
Cardwell, Edward, 300, 304
Carlingford, Lord, see For-

tescue, Chichester
Carlisle, seventh Earl of, 218
Carlyle, Thomas, 169, 170
Carnarvon, Lord, 91
Carter, Bonham, 7
Caruso, Sir Gregory and Lady,

258, 286, 288
Casanova, General, 256
Castel del Monte, 3
Cathcart, Major Andrew, 159
Cavendish, Hon. Adelaide, 288
Cavendish, Miss, 131
Cavour, Count, 171, 185
Chalcis, ii
Challoner, Mrs., 58
Chartres, Due de, 178
Chelmsford, Lord Chancellor,

193
Chester, Miss, 148

Cholmondeley, R., 139
Church, Professor C. M., 9, 10,

n, 21, 59, 221
Churchill, Captain, 84
Cialdini, General, 187
Clancarty, Lady, 241
Clanricarde, Lord, 91
Clarendon, Lord, 118
Clark, W. G., 199, 200
Clark, Rev. , 83, 209
Clermont, Lord, 31, 51, 52, 55,

183, 227
Clive, George, 6, 33, 50, 232,260

Clive, Mrs., 6, 142, 260

Clough, A. H., Lear's imitation
of, 141 ff.

Clowes, F., 88

Clowes, S. W., 123, 124, 127,
130, 152, 221

Cobden, Richard, 146

Colenso, Bishop, 251, 276,
299

Colquhoun, Sir P. M'C., 207,
258, 286, 298

Consular reform, Lear's views
on, 159 ff.

Cooper, T., 265

Corfu, Lear invited to, 9; letters
from, 32-51, 61-93, 110-13,
206-42, 256-80, 297-308 ;
Lear's monotonous life in,
65 ff. ; Gladstone sent as Com-
missioner to, 121, 125 ;
description of Paleokastrizza,
234 ; annexation by Greece,
298 ff.

Cortazzi family, the, 47, 66, 68,
73, 76

Cramer, Lear's publisher, 120,
132, 166

Craven, Rev. , 240, 262,
263

Creswick, Thomas, 259

Cromer, Earl of, 302

Cross, J., 113, 152, 221

Cullen, Archbishop, 154, 218

Gumming, Rev. Dr., 154

Curcumell, Sir Demetrius and
Lady, 258

Curzon, Colonel Leicester, 244

Cushman, Charlotte, 128

Cust, Colonel, 102

DAMASCHINO, Sir Philotheos

and Lady, 258
Dandolo, 308
Dead Sea, the, 108
Decie, Colonel and Mrs., 222
Denison, Archdeacon, 30
Denison, Lady, 137, 191
Dennett, Miss, 82, 83, 87

322

Index

Derby, thirteenth Earl of, xviii,
xxviii, 14, 15, 17, 18

Derby, fourteenth Earl of, 90,
135, 286

Disraeli, Benjamin, 90, 125, 131,
241

Drogheda, Marquis and Mar-
chioness of, 46

Dunglas, Lord, 102

Dunne, Colonel F. P., 131

EASTNOR, Lord, see Somers,

Lord

Edwards, S. Price, 150, 194
Egg, Augustus Leopold, 231
Egypt, Lear's longing to see,

8 ; his visits to, in 1854, 3 2 >

in 1858, 95

Eisenbach, Miss, 83, 84
Ellenborough, Lord, 135
Empson, Mrs., 62, 77, 137
Empson, Rev. W. H., 137
Erskine, Miss, 71, 84
Essays and Reviews, 189, 209,

214, 221
Etna, 4
Evans, Dr., 84

FAIRBAIRN, T., 150, 198, 229,

239

Fergusson, Sir J., 102

Flamburiani, Sir Karalambos
and Lady, 259

Forster, the medium, 238

Forster, W. E., 304

Fort, Mrs., 229

Fortescue, Chichester (Lord
Carlingf ord), beginning of his
friendship with Lear, xxii ff . ;
his life as a young man, 1,2;
Lear's advice to him about
the Colonial Secretaryship,
51 ; description of his life at
Ardee, 53 ; letters from, 42,
89, 247, 296 ; his reported
appointment to Irish Chief
Secretaryship, 188 ; his en-
gagement to Lady Walde-

grave, 247 ; his marriage,

265, 267
Fortescue, Colonel, of Dromis-

kin, 7

Fowler, D., 149
Fox, General, 82
Francis II. of Naples, 186
Furville, Captain, 84

GAGE, Colonel, 47, 79
Gallenga, Antonio, 167
Garibaldi, G., 133, 147, 176, 224
Garrett, General Sir R, 257,258
George I., King of Greece, 289
Gibbs, F. W., 127, 134
Gibson, John, sculptor, 124
Gibson, Milner, 90
Gladstone, W. E., 17, 30, 121,

125, 131, 147, 258, 260, 300
Goldsmid, Sir Francis, 183,

198, 229
Goldsmid, Miss Julia, 221 , 224,

225, 227

Gould, G. A., xviii, xxviii
Goyon, General, 169
Graham, The Rt. Hon. Sir J.,

200

Graham, Dr., in
Granville, second Earl, 128
Gray, Dr., of the British

Museum, xviii, xxviii
Greece, Lear's visit to in 1848,

9 ff
Greek, Lear's study of, 33, 43,

67, 87, 212
Grenfell, Henry, M.P., 212, 222,

248, 250

Grey, Sir George, 195
Gully, Dr., 115

HAMILTON, Chichester, 54
Hamilton, Lord Claud, 151
Hamilton, Jerrick, 198
Hamilton, John, 54, 57
Hampden, Bishop, 276
Hansen, Lear's servant, 265
Harcourt, C., 232
Harcourt, Egerton, 126

323

Letters of Edward Lear

Harcourt, Lady Frances, 126
Harcourt, George, 35, 126, 191,

211, 213 ff.
Harcourt, William, and Mrs.,

272
Hare, Mrs., mother of Augustus

J. C. Hare, 131, 132
Harford, J. B., 152, 153, 221
Harrowby, Earl of, 201
Havelock, Sir Henry, 58
Hay, Robert, 124, 128
Headfort, second Marquis and

Marchioness of, 69, 71, 72,

77, 79, 80, 84
Hebron, 100
Henchel von Donnesmarck,

Count G., 226
Hendon, Miss, 67
Herbert, Colonel and Mrs., 84
Herbert, Mrs. G., 6
Herbert, R. G. W., 152
Herbert, Sidney, 49, 147
Hewitson, , 175
Hey wood, Arthur, 134, 150
Highgate, Lear's old home at,

292

Holland, Sir Henry, 81
Hornby, Captain Geoffrey, 228
Hornby, Colonel, 198
Hornby, J., of Winwick, 15,

113, 146

Hornby, Mrs., 136
Hornby , Admiral Sir Phipps, 137
Hornby, Robert, 20, 221
Horton, Miss W., 6
Hunt, W. Holman, xvi,

xxxix, 34, 48, 49, 50, 85,

in, 117, 119, 136, 148, 153,

170, 196, 221, 231, 239

Husey-Hunt, B., 85, 113, 119,

152, 221

INDIAN Mutiny, the, 86
Inglis, General Sir John, 223,

226, 228, 257
Ipeica, 3

JAFFA, 95

Jardine, Sir William, xviii, xxviii
Jerusalem, letters from, 94,
no ; the Holy City de-
scribed, 96, 106, 107 ; Lear's
picture of, 99, 132, 133 ;
factions in, 103 ; the
Bishopric question, in
Jocelyn, Lord (Earl of Roden),

151

Joinville, Prince de, 178
"Journals of a Landscape

Painter," xxix, 19, 22

KENNEDY, Dr., headmaster of

Shrewsbury, 163
Kestner, Chevalier, 270
Kinglake, A. W., 238, 304
Kirkwall, Viscount, 283
Knight, C., 124, 128
Knight, Isabella, 124, 128
Knight, Margaret (Duchesse de

Sermoneta), 124, 128
" Knowsley Menagerie," the,

xviii, 14
Knowsley, 15
Kokali, Basilia, 306
Kokali, Christo, 308
Kokali, Giorgio, xxxiv, xxxv,

46, 124, 129, 163, 167, 233,

265, 297, 308
Kozziris, Lady Emily, 35, 83,

209, 233, 241
Kozziris, L. J. E., 68

LABOUCHERE, Henry, see Taun-

ton, Lord

Lamoriciere, General, 171, 251
Lansdowne, fourth Marquess

of, 200, 259, 272
Lascelles,The Hon. Emma, 287
Leake, Colonel, 167
Lear, Ann, xvii, 20, 97, 115, 119,

15, 153, 154, 170, 208, 232,

291 ; her last illness and

death, 182 ff.
Lear, Edward, quality of his

humour, xiii ; the editor's

memories of him, xv ; his

324

Index

birth and education, xvi ; his
" Family of the Psittacidas,"
xvii ; his work for Lord
Derby, xviii ff., xxviii ; his
drawing-lessons to Queen
Victoria, xx, xxi, xxix ; Mr.
Wilfrid Ward's story of him,
xxi, xxii ; beginning of his
friendship with Fortescue,
xxii ff. ; Ruskin's gratitude
to him, xxvi ; an autobio-
graphical letter, xxvii ff. ; his
life after 1864, xxx ff. ; his
Villa Emily, xxxii, and Villa
Tennyson, xxxiv ; his resting-
place, xxxv ; an appreciation
of his art by Mr. Henry
Strachey, xxxvi ff.

Lear, Ellinor, 191, 223, 271

Lear, Harriett, 140, 144, 145

Lear, Mary, 154, 187

Lear, Sarah, 153, 154, 170

Lear, Sophy, 154

Lebanon, 108, 109

Leeds, the Dowager Duchess
of, 285

Lever, C. J., 195

Lever's novels, 290

Leycester (Penrhyn), Edward,
116, 183

Lindsay, Coutts, 63

Lindsay, Miss, 6

Luard, , 222

Lucian, 75

Lushington, Dr., 214, 221, 225

Lushington, Franklin, 14, 18,
34, 40, 44, 47, 65, 76, 79, 85,
92, in, 113, 125, 148, 170,

172, 197, 208, 221, 228

Lydford, 17 ff.
Lyle, , 175
Lyons, Lord, 120
Lytton, Sir E. Bulwer, 89, 121,
195

MACBEAN, , 152
Macdonald, Norman, 69
Macfarlane, Mrs., 79

Macguire, , 147

Madox- Bromley, Sir Richard,

Malcolm, Mrs., 217, 221
Malta, a letter from, 243 ff .
Manning, Cardinal, 132, 170,

171
Marcoran, Sir George, 251, 258,

288
Marguerite, Princess of Parma,

223
Maria Nicolowiena, Grand

Duchess, 128
Marriage, Lear's views on, 29,

135, 136
Mar Saba, 108
Marshall, James, 128
Martineau, R. B., 148
Masada, Lear's painting of, 70,

86, 99, 100, 132
Massala, 3

Mathews, Bertie, 124, 128
Maude, Colonel, 210, 222
Merivale, Under-Secretary, 89,

91, 112, 172
Metaxa, Count Jean-Baptiste,

286

Middleton, George, 148
Millais, Sir J. G., xl, 34, 136
Montalembert, Comte de, 118,

120

Montefiore, Sir Moses, 104
Morier, Robert, 64, 74, 116,

152, 194, 195
Mortara, Edgar, 165
Munich, Lear at, 203
Murray, Lady, 197
Murray, Miss, 84

NAPOLEON III., 133, 157, 158,

196
Napoleon, Eugene Louis,

Prince Imperial, 297
Naylor, Mrs., 225, 227
Nevile, Rev. C., 251
Nevill, W., 114, 152, 221, 226
Newcastle, fifth Duke of, 172,

248, 293, 296, 299, 300, 304

325

Letters of Edward Lear

Newcastle, Co. Down, 55
Newton, Sir Charles, 153, 163,

166, 168

Nightingale, , of Emley, 138
Normanby, Lady, 193
Northbrook, first Earl of (T.

Baring), xxxiii, 5, 6, 9, 14, 50

O'BRIEN, Smith, 278
O'Donoghue, the, 182, 218
Omnium, J., 245
Ormonde, Lady, 43, 44

PAKINGTON, Rt. Hon. Sir J., 91

Palgrave, F. T., his " Golden
Treasury," 192 ; goes to live
with Woolner, 199 ; his Art
Handbook, 245

Palmer, William, of Magdalen,
127

Palmerston, Viscount, 88 ff.,
130, 139, 161, 166, 192, 241

Paris in 1858, 123

Paris, Comte de, 178, 181, 223

Parnassus, Lear's painting of ,27

Parry, Gambier, 59

Patragik, n

Pattle, Virginia, 30

Peel, Major John, 209

Peel, Sir Robert, 188

Penrhyn, see Leycester, Ed-
ward

Pentini, Cardinal, 195

Percy, Lady Susan, 5, 7

Perkins, Mrs. Mary Ridge, 128

Perugia, sack of, in 1859, J ^4

Petra, 100, 101

Petraja, Villa, Lear's painting
of, 185, 186, 189, 196, 199,

2OO, 211, 2l6

Philae, Lear's painting of, 35

Phillimore, Mrs. R. J., 191

Philpotts, Bishop, 104

Pius IX., Pope, 5

Platosa, 10

Platides, Sir Plato and Lady, 258

Plato, 75

Plumer, Mr. and Mrs., 201

Plutarch, 75
Pollington, Lord, 164
Potter, Sir John, 114
Potter, the Misses, 148
Preraphaelites, the, Lear's re-
lation to, xxxix
Prescott, W. G., 253
Preta, Cardinal Viale, 165
Proby, John, Lord, 2, 3, 119,120
Proby, Lady Isabella, 119
" Psittacidae, Family of the,"
xvii, xxviii

RAMLEH, 95

Ravensdale, 51, 52

Redgrave, Richard, 259

Reggio, revolution at, 4 ; Lear's
painting of, 26

Reid, Sir James, 47, 65, 66, 73,
88

RenanWie de Jesus," 285,
299

Rendlesham, fifth Baron, 164

Reynolds, Major, 167, 229

Ricasoli, Count, 188, 191

Rimbault, Dr., 115

Robinson, Admiral Sir Spen-
cer, 255

Roden, Earl of, see Jocelyn,
Lord

Roebuck, J. A., 191

Rogers, Sir F. L., 304

Rome, unrest in, in 1847, 5 ;
society in, in 1848, 6, in
1858-9, 123 ff. ; social and
moral atmosphere in 1860,
162 ff. ; disturbance at Gari-
baldi's birthday, 168, 169

a Rome and its Environs,"
xxviii

Ross, David, of Bladensburg,
163

Ross, Mrs., of Bladensburg, 168

Ross, Lady Mary, 7

Ruskin's gratitude to Lear,
xx vi

Russell, Lord John, 89, 91, 147,
161, 169, 296, 308

326

Index

Russell, Odo, 127, 131, 169
Ruxton, Mrs., 7, 45, 53 ff., 61,
126, 190, 263

ST. ALBANS, tenth Duke of,

267, 278
St. Leonards, letters from,

144-156
San Remo, Lear's studio and

villas at, xxxi ff .
Sandwith, Humphrey, 50
Sargent, Sir Charles, 207, 222,

237, 258, 272, 274, 275, 286,

298

Sartoris, Mrs., 6
Saunders, Sir Sydney Smith,

159, 160, 161
Schimmelpenninck, Mrs., Life

of, 150

Scott, Sir Francis, 2, 4, 150
Seaton, Lord and Lady, 57, 58
Seddon, Thomas, 48
Senior, Nassau, 82
Sermoneta, Duchesse de, 124,

128
Seymour, Alfred, 38, 40, 48,

198

Seymour, Lord, 275, 278
Seymour, Admiral Sir Michael,

181
Shaftesbury, seventh Earl of,

213
Shakespear, Major and Mrs.,

47, 78, 79
Shelley, Sir Percy, Lady, and

Florence, 278, 280
Simeon, Cornwall, xxvii ff., 20
Simeon, Sir John, 33, 35
Smith, Major Webber, 246
Somers, Earl and Countess, 30,

63
Spencer, fourth Earl, 82, 83

Spooner, , 193

Stanley, A. P., Dean of West-
minster, 116, 125, 199, 200,
224, 228, 230

Stanley, Lord, 89, 91, in, 117,
119, 120, 135

Stanley of Alderley, second

Baron, 51
Stanley, Mary, 116
Stanley, Mrs., 232
Stisted, Mrs., 291
Stocker, Captain, 279
Storks, Sir Henry, 125, 131,

152, 210, 211, 224, 251, 258,

266, 267, 273, 274, 277 ff.,

283, 286, 288, 292, 298 ff.,

302 ff., 307

Strahan, Aide-de-Camp, 302
Strangford, seventh Viscount,

69
Stratford de Redcliffe, Lord,

n, 71, 125, 127, 131
Street, C. H., 222
Strong, Archibald, 59
Stuart de Rothesay, Lady, 211
Swanston, Professor, xviii
Swinburne, A. C., 198
Syracuse, 3 ; Lear's painting of,

27, 59

TAIT, Archbishop, 120

Talbot, Colonel, 71, 82, 266

Taunton, Lord, 50, 62, 83, 91

Taylor, Tom, 250

Tempe, Lear's water-colour of,
xv

" Tempest, The," Greek trans-
lation Of, 112

Tennyson, Lady, 138, 197, 226

Tennyson, Lord, Poet Laureate,
xv, xxi, 15, 22, 34, 39, 43, 44,
113 ff., 137, 138,145, 166,213,
228, 229, 235; a visit to
Farringford described, 138

Thebes, 10, n

Therapia, the Embassy at, 12

Thermopylae, Lear's painting
of, 9, 10, 26, 27, 254, 255

Thirlwall, Bishop, 189, 276

Tisdall, Mrs., 219

Trieste, letter from, 200 ff .

Troy, Lear at, 38, 39, 42

Tullamore Park, 56

Tyrwhitt, R. St. John, 163

327

Letters of Edward Lear

URQUHART, D., 138, 140
Urquhart, Mrs., 87, 140

VALSAMACHI, Lady, 71,209, 240,

244, 258

Venosa, Lear's painting of, 26
Vere, Aubrey de, third son of

Sir Aubrey de Vere, 128, 209
Vere, Mrs. F. H. Aubrey de,

257
Vere, Major F. H. de, 228, 257

Vergine, Monte, 3
Vernon, Captain, 220
Vernon, Lady Selina, 221
Victor Emmanuel I., 169, 185,

196, 208

Victoria,Queen, Lear's drawing-
lessons to, xx, xxi, xxix
" Views in the Ionian Islands,"

XXX

Villafranca, Treaty of, 147, 157;

story of the echo, 167
Vitalis, Mrs., 79
Volture, Monte, 3

WALDEGRAVE, Frances Coun-
tess, 35, 50, 70, 83, 85 ff., 90,
114, 126, 136, 164, 165, 184,
191, 211, 213 ff., 223, 231,232,
294, 300, 301 ; letters from
Lear to, 51 ff., 97 ff ., 132, 133,
172, 173, 254, 255, 260 ff.,
275-9 5 Lear's letter on the
death of Mr.Harcourt, 215 ff.,
227 ; her engagement to
Chichester Fortescue, 247,
254, 255 ; her marriage to
him, 265, 267

Waldegrave, The Hon. George,
127

Waldegrave, Sarah Countess
(widow of the eighth Earl),
284

Wales, Prince of (King Ed-
ward VII.), 131, 134, 224,
228, 280

Walrond, 116

Walton - on - Thames, Lear's

letters from, 174 ff., iSoff.
Ward, Lord, 8
Ward, Wilfrid, xxi
Waterford, Marchioness of , 21 1
Wentworth, Mrs., xvii, xxviii
Westbury, first Baron, see

Bethell, Sir Richard
Wilberforce, Samuel, Bishop

of Oxford, 213
"Will," Tennyson's, translated

by Lear into Greek, 236, 237
Williams, Dr. Rowland, 2 14, 225
Wilson, Edward, 287, 293
Wilton, second Earl of, xix
Wilton, Countess of, 136
Wimppfen, Mme., 202, 203
Winwick, 15
Wiseman, Cardinal, 164, 251,

285

Wodehouse, Lord, 300
Wolff, Sir Henry Drummond,

131, 206, 207, 222, 231, 238,

251, 258, 266, 272 ff., 279
Wolff, Lady, 272
Wolff, Rev. Joseph, 240
Wood, Sir Richard, 160
Woodward, Rev. , Chaplain

at Rome, 129

Woolner, Thomas, 199, 245
Wyatt, Sir Digby, 198
Wyatt, T., 202
Wyndham, , 79
Wynne, Colonel and Mrs., 241
Wythenshawe, 15

XENOPHON, 77

Xidian, 251, 257, 285, 286, 288

YOUNG, Sir John, 8, 35, 37, 39,
48, 65, 76, 125, 131, 211

Young, Lady, 65, 69, 70, 77, 82,
83, 88, 211

Young, Major, 269

ZAMBELLi,Sir Themistoclesand
Lady, 258

UNWIK BROTHERS, LIMITED, PRINTERS, WOKING AND LONDON.

tiNiV. OF CALIF. LIBRARY, LOS AiNGELES

A l'!!'!'"'''''''"'/iliiii/'/||||||

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